ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
797 
violet rays, the aesculin plate is combined with another which contains 
0 • 02 grm. of fluorescin instead of the aesculin. These two plates are 
stuck together and their edges united with black paper. As the aesculin 
becomes embrowned with time it must be replaced by a fresh plate. 
Application of Photography to the demonstration of certain 
Physiological Processes in Plants.* — Mr. W. Gardiner states that it is 
possible, by taking advantage of their sensitiveness to light, to obtain 
prints from Protococci , or the free-swimming swarm-spores of many green 
algae. Into one end of a water-tight box a thin glass plate is securely 
fixed. The negative to be printed is then placed next the glass, film 
side nearest. The box is filled with water containing a fairly large 
quantity of swarm-spores, and the lid is shut down and the whole 
exposed to diffused light. In the case of a strong well-developed 
negative, the swarm-spores swim towards the most highly illuminated 
parts, so that, after some four or six hours, on pouring out the water 
and removing the negative, a print in green swarm-spores can be 
obtained. 
(6) Miscellaneous. 
Deceased Honorary Fellows. Mr. Ralfs and Prof. Parker, F.R.S. 
— Our Fellows will be glad to have memorial notices of the two eminent 
honorary Fellows whom we have recently lost. That of Mr. John Kalfs 
is extracted from the notice by Messrs. H. & J. Groves in the ‘ Journal 
of Botany,’ xxviii. (1890) p. 289. 
“ Only those who have come into close contact with the man or have 
carefully studied his works, can realize the greatness of the intellect of 
the veteran botanist who died at Penzance in July last. Had not his 
health and eyesight failed, there is little doubt that John Ralfs would 
have ranked as one of the greatest botanists of the century. His clearness 
of perception, his conciseness and exactitude of expression, added to his 
indomitable energy, his enthusiasm, and his wonderful memory, made 
him the very ideal of a naturalist. 
He was born on Sept. 13th, 1807, at Millbrook, near Southampton. 
He came of an old Hampshire family, being the second son of Samuel 
Ralfs, of Mudeford, near Christchurch. His father died in 1808, and 
the young family was brought up by the mother, who disposed of the 
property at Mudeford, and removed to Southampton. Young Ralfs’s 
first school appears to have been that of Dr. Duller in this town ; he 
afterwards went to Mr. Jennings’s at Bishop’s Waltham, and subsequently 
to the Rev. J. Jenvey’s at Romsey. To the last-named gentleman he 
became much attached, and to him he dedicated his first botanical book. 
As a lad Ralfs was studious and painstaking, and showed an early 
inclination to scientific pursuits which first developed in the direction of 
chemistry. At about the age of eighteen he was articled to his uncle, 
a surgeon at Brentford, with whom he remained two years and a half, 
after which he studied at Winchester Hospital for two years. In 1832 
he passed the examination qualifying him as a surgeon, and in this 
examination we find that he distinguished himself by his knowledge of 
botany. He went into partnership with a surgeon in Shoreditch, and 
3 K 
1890. 
* Ann. of Bot., iv. (1889) p. 163. 
