14 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
tempered with so real an insight into character, so just an appre- 
ciation of all that was worthy, and withal were so free from the 
suspicion of envy or jealousy, that they never produced a rankling 
sore or gave rise to a bitter repartee. 
The Society will kindly treat with indulgence this imperfect 
attempt at the portraiture of one of the most noteworthy of those 
whom death has recently removed from among them.* 
Hugo yon Mohl, the only Fellow whom death has struck off 
our Honorary list during the last year, was long eminent among 
the botanists of the Continent for his researches in Botanical 
Physiology. In his student days medicine was his main pursuit, 
but combined with the ardent cultivation of botany and geology. 
He graduated with great distinction at Tubingen, and was en- 
couraged to make medicine his profession by his father, who 
filled an important office in the Wiirtemberg Government. But 
the son’s bent was turned more and more to botanical investi- 
gation, which by degrees became his great object in life, to the 
utter disregard of medical practice. He entered on his task with 
the great advantage of a mind highly cultivated in the collateral 
sciences, as well as in the languages. With the further advantage 
of a robust frame and constitution, he was enabled to make at an 
early age frequent successful excursions in his own neighbour- 
hood, and also in the Alps, gathering extensive collections of 
plants, and accumulating materials for future study. He then 
commenced his researches into the anatomical structure of the 
Palms, Ferns, and Cycads. In his twenty-sixth year he was 
appointed Sub-director of the Imperial Gardens at St Petersburg; 
next year, without having taken up that office, he was elected 
Professor of Physiology in the Academy of Bern, and then in the 
University of that city; and in his thirtieth year he was pro- 
moted to the Chair of Botany in his own University of Tubingen. 
Eight years afterwards, on account of his services to science, he 
was raised by the King of Wiirtemberg to the rank of nobility. 
A few years later, in spite of his apparently robust constitution, 
he became subject to catarrhal affections. Although he succeeded 
* For the preceding sketch of Bishop Terrot’s life, the Society and I are 
indebted to Professor Kelland. 
