594 baker's north Yorkshire. 
Welburn, from whence he had set off on his great exploring- 
travels in 1849, bringing with him the large collection of 
Hepaticae gathered through the great valley of the Amazon 
river and its tributaries, also from the equatorial district of 
the Peruvian Andes almost to the line of perpetual snow. 
xA.lthough he was so much an invalid from his bodily infirmi- 
ties as only to be able to work at the microscope for short 
intervals, he commenced the careful examination of these 
plants, many of them very minute, and requiring the most 
accurate observation ; fortunately, his mental power had not 
suffered from the paralysis, and by careful living his life was 
prolonged, and he was thus enabled to complete the exami- 
nation of his collections, and the results were published in the 
transactions of the Botanic Society of Edinburgh, vol. xv. , 
1884, entitled : — Hepaticce AmazojiiccE et Andince,'" 22 tab. 
with drawings of some new genera and species. The 
great scientific value of this work is in the limitation of the 
genera and their arrangement according to natural affinity. 
He has brought together a large amount of matter that has 
enabled him to draw valuable conclusions, and to take an 
eminent place among all systematists in this special branch 
of science, by the solidity and accuracy of his work, by his 
broad views, and by the original, independent and intelligent 
carrying out of his investigations. His classification of the 
Hepaticae is so excellent that it has been much appreciated 
by all students, and his arrangement of them is now the one 
generally followed by all recent writers. Numerous scientific 
societies have done him honour. In his early life. Spruce 
was made a Fellow of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 
and on his return to England after his long travels, the great 
value of his work was realised. The degree Ph.D. was 
conferred upon him by the University of Zurich, and he was 
elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and an 
Associate of the Linnean Society of London. 
