ix 



counting as lie did amongst his warmest friends so many of the elite 

 of the literary, artistic, scientific, political, and even musical world in 

 England and on the Continent. He was as fond of society as society 

 was of him, and he confided to a friend his belief that to this must be 

 laid the blame of his not having done more scientific work. He was 

 twice married : in 1856 to an Italian lady, Eliza Parolini, daughter of 

 a distinguished naturalist and Oriental traveller, Count Alberto 

 Parolini, by whom he had two children (sons), who survive him, and 

 through whom he came into estates at Bassano, in Venetia. His 

 second wife was Miss Julia O'Beirne, daughter of F. O'Beirne, Esq., 

 of Co. Leitrim, who survives him. He was a Fellow of the Royal 

 Irish Academy, of the Linnean, Antiquarian, and Royal Geographical 

 Societies, and was elected a Fellow of this Society in 1868. Shortly 

 before his death he received the Honorary Fellowship of his Cam- 

 bridge College (Christ's), a distinction the more appreciated as he 

 had been debarred by his religion from University honours, which he 

 assuredly would have otherwise won half a century earlier. 



For the last few "years of his life Mr. Ball suffered much from an 

 affection of the throat, which obliged him to pass the winters abroad ; 

 and whilst in the Engadine an internal tumour was developed, for 

 which, on his return to England in the summer of 1889, he under- 

 went a severe operation. Under the effects of this he succumbed on 

 October 21, 1 889, at his house in South Kensington. 



His extensive herbarium and botanical library were left by bequest 

 to Sir J. J). Hooker, the Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, and 

 the President of this Society, to be dealt with as they should think fit, 

 with the sole object of promoting the knowledge of natural science. 



J. D. H. 



The Rev. Miles Joseph Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S., born at Biggin Hall 

 near Oundle, April 1, 1803, was the second son of Charles Berkeley, 

 Esq. and his wife, the latter a sister of P. G. Munn, the well-known 

 water-colour artist. His family belonged to the Spetchley branch of 

 the Berkeleys, and had for several generations been resident in 

 Northamptonshire. From the Grammar School at Oundle, he was 

 sent to Rugby, and in 1821 was entered at Christ's College, Cam- 

 bridge, where he graduated as fifth Senior Optime in 1825. He has 

 left it on record that he became attached to natural history at a very 

 early period, and that his scientific tendencies, both zoological and 

 botanical, which had been fostered at Rugby, were further stimulated 

 at Cambridge by an intimate acquaintance with the late Professor 

 Henslow. His first clerical duty was the curacy of Thornhaugh, 

 in Northamptonshire, where he was ordained in 1827 ; and in 1830 he 

 became curate of St. John's, Margate, from which time for upwards 



