OBITUARY NOTICES. 
573 
XYI. 
OBITUARY NOTICES. 
Herbert D. Geldart. 
1831 — 1902. 
On 21st September last the death occurred, at his residence, 
Thorpe Hamlet, of Herbert Decimus Geldart, an original member 
of the Society, the Treasurer for many years, President on three 
separate occasions (1874 — 75, 1882 — 83, 1895 — 9G), and a Vice- 
President from the year 1875. He belonged to an old Norwich 
family, and one which took an honourable position in a literary 
circle which flourished in this city early in the last century. 
His official connection with the Society dated from its 
beginning in 1869, when ho served on the first Committee. He 
read a paper ‘ On the Division of the County for Botanical 
Purposes’ at the first meeting of the Society, 27th April, 1869. 
From that date to the year of his death his interest in the work 
of the Society never abated. His botanical contributions to the 
Transactions must have entailed an enormous amount of work, and 
will prove invaluable to all future students of the botany of 
Norfolk. A glance through the list of papers by him, published 
in the Transactions, will show, however, that though Norfolk 
Botany was his principal study, his interests were by no means 
confined to that county. He had devoted considerable attention 
to the Arctic Flora and its distribution, in which he collaborated 
with Colonel H. W. Feilden, C.B., who had brought home collections 
of plants from Spitzbergen, Russian Lapland, and the island of 
Kolguev. In a letter to the Hon. Secretary of the Society, Colonel 
Feilden writes : “ His extraordinary general knowledge was com- 
bined with such accuracy and exactitude that I never found him 
tripping in the thousands of references that have passed between us. 
What I should feel inclined to dilate upon is the great knowledge, 
perseverance, and unflagging energy with which he worked out, in 
co-operation with me, the various botanical collections that I 
brought back from time to time from the Arctic Regions.” Mr. 
Geldart ’s third Presidential Address, delivered 30th March, 1896 
VOL VII. 
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