XXIX 



reading, with a special bent in the direction of philosophical studies 

 which he found time to pursue in the intervals of his engrossing 

 professional work. Though he spoke English imperfectly, he could 

 read it with ease, and thus kept himself abreast of the advance of 

 scientific and philosophic thought in this country. The writer well 

 remembers that when, in 1877, he was working at Wiirzburg, Sachs 

 was engaged with the writings of Herbert Spencer and of Lecky. 

 Possessed, as he was, of a fund of humour, of a singularly acute 

 intellect, and of a great store of information, Sachs was a brilliant 

 talker. Altogether he was a remarkable and conspicuous figure, not 

 among* the botanists only, but among the men of science of his time ; 

 and in losing him the Royal Society has to deplore the loss of not 

 the least distinguished of her Foreign Members, and of a worthy 

 successor to Grew, Malpighi, Hales, and Knight. 



S. H. V. 



Samuel Haughton, who died on the 31st October, 1897, sprang 

 from an old Quaker family, and although both of his parents had 

 withdrawn from the Community of Friends, he spent his boyhood 

 amidst Quaker surroundings. The early impressions which he then 

 received remained permanent through life, and he retained deep- 

 rooted within him many of the best of the Quaker principles. 



He was born in Carlow on the 21st December, 1821, and was early 

 sent to a large school which was kept in that town by the Rector of 

 the parish. It was during his school life that his interest in natural 

 science was awakened. He had the good fortune to come under the 

 influence of Mr. Emerson, one of the masters of the school, a most 

 gifted scholar, and a man endowed with a profound love of nature. 

 With him as an associate young Haughton roamed over the surround- 

 ing country in search of specimens. The banks of the beautiful river 

 which flows through his native town, the bog-land in the immediate 

 vicinity, and the slopes of the neighbouring hills, were sj^stematically 

 explored, and botany and geology became his favourite recreations. 



At the age of seventeen Haughton entered Trinity College, Dublin. 

 He possessed in a remarkable degree the qualities which lead to 

 success in college life, quickness of apprehension, a clear head, and 

 a tenacious and ready memory. Indeed the distinction which he 

 attained as a student was such that immediately after taking his 

 degree, an unexpected vacancy having occurred, his friends induced 

 him to enter as a candidate for Fellowship. With little more than 

 six months' preparation, he succeeded at his first trial (1844) in that 

 most formidable examination, a feat quite unprecedented in the 

 history of the college. Set free thus early from the prolonged 

 drudgery which is the usual preliminary of a Fellowship contest, 

 Haughton had the rare good fortune to be able, untrammelled by 



vol. lxii. / 



