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Obituary . 
Microscopical Society in 1880, and served in the office of President 
during the years 1900 to 1901, taking as the subjects of his Presi- 
dential Addresses the life and work of “John Ellis” (January 
1900) and “ Nehemiah Grew ” (January 1901). 
Carruthers was a botanist almost equally eminent in the 
systematic, palaeontological and economic branches of the science. 
His most important contribution to pure science, “ A Monograph 
of the Eossil Cycadean Stems of the Secondary Rocks of Britain ” 
(published in the Transactions of the Linnean Society, 1870), from 
Avhich the well-known genera Williamsonia and Bennettites date 
their origin, still remains a classic in palaeobotany. In 1871 he 
was appointed Consulting Botanist to the Royal Agricultural 
Society, a post he held until 1910. His annual reports cover a 
wide field and form a valuable contribution to economic botany. 
When he began seed-testing on a very small scale in his own 
home in 1871 it was a real innovation in England, but under his 
hand it grew until now we have the important Institution at 
Cambridge of which he may well be described as the father. He 
devoted much time to the selection of grass for pasture and the 
guaranteed purity and germination of grass seed ; he also conducted 
a classical series of observations on the vitality of farm seed. 
He formed a fine collection of Puritan tracts, and continued 
to take a practical interest in the work of the Presbyterian 
Church in England, and for forty-six years edited their “ Children’s 
Messenger.” 
A. W. Sheppard. 
