382 THE BOTANICAL EXCHANGE CLUB OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



a more stable and logical system than the one which for a time 

 claims to hold the field. 



Baron Avebury, P.O., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., D.Sc. (Sir John 

 Lubbock), born in London, April 30th, 1834, died May 28th, 1913, 

 at Kingsgate Castle, Kent. We have to deplore the death of this pro- 

 lific writer and genial scientist, whose energy in putting before the 

 public in a readable manner volume after volume, treating on such a 

 variety of subjects as : — " The Use of Life," " The Beauties of Nature," 

 " The Pleasures of Life, Part 1 and 2," " Fifty Years of Science." 

 "British Wild Flowers considered in Relation to Insects," "Buds and 

 Stipules," "Ants, Bees, and Wasps," "The Origin of Civilisation 

 and the Primitive Condition," "Notes on the Life History of British 

 Flowering Plants, 1905," etc., etc., with over a hundred memoirs (see 

 Trans. Roy. Soc.) gave an enormous impetus to the study of natural 

 science. He has not been inaptly described as the " Admirable 

 Crichton of the Victorian Era." He passed 29 measures through the 

 Houses of Parliament, was President not only of the Institute of 

 Bankers, but of the Linnean Society, the British Association, and the 

 London Chamber of Commerce. His keenness remained even to an 

 advanced age. Only a few years back I had the pleasure of meet- 

 ing him again at Cornbury Park, when he was greatly interested in 

 the two species of Crataegus, which, with their varieties, are so well 

 represented in the historic forest of Wychwood. Although a Bentha- 

 mite, he saw that there was much to be said in favour of distinguish- 

 ing them as species, and subsequently wrote to me about them. He 

 claimed to have been the first person in England to be photographed. 

 He certainly has engraved himself deeply on contemporaneous history. 

 Many of his publications had an enormous sale, and were translated 

 into several languages, "The Pleasures of Life," even into Urdu, 

 Guzerati and Japanese. This year in Venezuela, I saw a lad in the 

 garden of a seminary, a few miles out of Caracas, reading an English 

 book. This was Lubbock's " Pleasures of Life," and when I told him 

 I knew the author he became very interested, and insisted upon being 

 our very agreeable guide into the adjacent mountains. I had hoped 

 to have been able to tell the author of the incident, but on my return 

 to England found that the accomplished savant, the sage politician, 

 and distinguished financier, had passed away, leaving the world dis- 

 tinctly poorer by his loss. 



