THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 73 
into the new plant. Finally, about 15 or 20 Natural Orders of 
flowering plants are selected, types of which are examined in 
a practical way in class. Throughout the year the work is 
illustrated by specimens, demonstrations and microscopic 
preparations. Not only is the structure and physiology of 
plants discussed, but their development, their habits, the col- 
lecting and preserving of specimens, the formation, care and 
arrangement of small collections of plants for private or 
school purposes, and, in dealing with the Natural Orders, the 
affinities of plants and their various uses to man are discussed. 
The second-year work embraces a thorough training in work 
with the microscope, including the preparation of botanical 
material for microscopic work, section-cutting, staining, ete. 
In the lecture work the plant kingdom is treated as a whole, 
an account being given of the lower groups of plants such as 
the Algw, Fungi, Mosses, etc. The structure of plant tissues 
is treated at much greater length than in the first year; and 
about 30 Natural Orders are studied in regard to their struc- 
ture, relationship, distribution and economics. 
For both classes a number of excursions (about 15) are held 
throughout the year for the purpose of observing plants under 
their natural conditions, and in order to begin to learn some- 
thing of the Australian Flora by acquiring a knowledge of the 
plants of the Sydney and surrounding districts. 
OBITUARY, 
On the 3lst January of the present year Mr. F. Bi. Grant, 
F.L.S., a Vice-President of the Club, passed away after a brief 
illness. By the demise of this gentleman the Club sustained 
severe loss. He was a constant attendant at the council and 
general meetings of the Club, whose work he did much to 
advance. It is, however, in the broader field of science that he 
will be most greatly missed—a field in which he loomed con- 
spicuously. Although a young man—he was only 40 at 
his death—he had contributed a considerable number of 
memoirs to the journals of learned societies, and there yet 
remains to be published a posthumous paper from hig pen 
dealing with the Crustacea of Norfolk Island. Among 
workers in Australian biological science few had devoted 
themselves to the study of our native marine and fresh-water 
Crustacea, and it was in view of this that Mr. Grant applied 
his energy and skill to its study. How ably he performed 
his task the scientific work of the later years of his life bear 
eloquent testimony. 
