Lhmcean Society. 



231 



Land, Timor, and the Mauritius, at all of which places Mr. Cun- 

 ningham formed extensive collections. After the conclusion of these 

 voyages, Mr. Cunningham made several journeys into the interior 

 of New South Wales, and subsequently visited Norfolk Island and 

 New Zealand, where he remained several months. The fruits of 

 his researches in the latter country are given in the ' Companion to 

 the Botanical Magazine,' and ' Annals of Natural History.' After 

 an absence of seventeen years, Mr. Cunningham returned to his 

 native country, and continued to reside in the vicinity of Kew, until 

 the melancholy tidings arrived of the death of his brother Richard, 

 whom he was appointed to succeed in the quality of Colonial 

 Botanist in New South Wales, where he again arrived in February 

 1837. In the following year he revisited New Zealand, and re- 

 mained there during the whole of the rainy season, which produced 

 serious effects upon a constitution already greatly debilitated, and 

 on his return to Sydney his health visibly declined until the period 

 of his death, which took place on the 27th of June last, at the age 

 of 48. He was distinguished for his moral worth, singleness of 

 heart, and enthusiastic zeal in the pursuit of science. 



Davies Gilbert, Esq., F.R.S. — Mr. Davies Gilbert was distin- 

 guished by his high attainments in science and literature, his simple 

 and gentle manners, and his amiable purity of heart. He was the 

 son of the Rev. Edward Giddy, and was born on the 6th of March, 

 1767, at St.Erth, in Cornwall. 



Davies Giddy was a child of early intellectual promise, but his 

 health was feeble, and he received not only the rudiments but al- 

 most the whole of his education under the paternal roof, guided and 

 assisted by a father whose classical learning was of a high order. 

 For about a twelvemonth he was placed under the tuition of the Rev. 

 James Parken, Master of the Grammar School at Penzance, to w T hich 

 town his family removed for that purpose ; but he soon returned 

 to Tredrea, which was long afterwards his favourite abode, to pursue 

 his studies in a manner more congenial to his feelings. He had by 

 this time formed a taste for mathematical investigations, in which 

 he was aided by the knowledge, freely and kindly imparted, of the 

 Rev. Malachi Hitchins of St. Hilary, a man whose name is well 

 known and respected by practical astronomers. In the year 1782 

 he removed with his family to Bristol, and continued to cultivate the 

 severer sciences with undiminished ardour. On the 12th of April, 

 1785, he entered as a Gentleman Commoner of Pembroke College 

 in the University of Oxford, and soon attracted the notice of many 

 of its Professors and Senior Residents. He resided pretty constantly 

 there from his matriculation, except during the long vacations, till 

 the year 1789, when he became an Honorary Master of Arts, but still 

 continued to make long visits to his old College. 



In November, 1791, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, 

 and formed a connexion with Dr. Maskelyne, Sir Joseph Banks, 

 Mr. Cavendish, and other eminent members of that body, which 

 terminated only with their lives. Though the sciences dependent 

 on and connected with mathematics were the chief objects of his 



