Sir William Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow. to those who were struggling from darkness into light." Sir William Hooker, Director of the Royal Gardens at Kew, died on the 12th of August. The Athenæum of the 26th states that he was born in 1785, "his father, who was in business at Norwich, being a man who devoted all his leisure to reading, especially travels and German literature, and to the cultivation of curious plants; by which, doubtless, was laid the foundation of that love of Natural History for which his son was so distinguished." At an early age he formed the design of devoting his life to travelling and natural history. "Ornithology and entomology first attracted his attention; but, being happily the discoverer of a rare moss, which he took to Sir J. E. Smith, he received from that eminent botanist the bias which determined his future career." In 1820 he was appointed to the Regius Professorship of Botany in Glasgow, where he remained for twenty years. In 1836 he received the honour of knighthood from William IV.;* and in 1841 a new era of his life began with his * The king once asked him abruptly, "Sir William, which is the greater botanist, you or Dr. Lindley?” "Dr. Lindley, your Majesty." "That is said like a gentleman, at any rate," retorted the king; "and we'll leave the question for the botanists to settle." appointment to Kew. "The history of his career Director of as Director of the Royal Gardens is so well and Appointed so widely known that it need not detain us long. Kew Gardens. From a garden of eleven acres, without herbarium, library, or museum, and characterized by the stinginess of its administration, under his sole management it has risen to an establishment comprising 270 acres, laid out with wonderful skill and judgment;—including an arboretum of all such trees and shrubs as will stand the open air in this country, magnificent ranges of hot-houses and conservatories, such as no three establishments on the Continent put together can rival; three museums, each an original conception of itself, containing many thousand square feet of glass, and filled with objects of interest in the vegetable kingdom from all parts of the globe, a herbarium unrivalled for extent, arrangement, accuracy of nomenclature, and beauty of keep, and excellent botanical libraries, including small ones for the use of the gardeners and museums......In person Sir William Hooker was tall and good-looking, with a peculiarly erect and agile gait, which he retained to the end of his life. His address and bearing were singularly genial and urbane," and those who enjoyed his friendship bear testimony that in parting from him the final impression "was not that the time had been spent in the society of Sir William a great botanist, but that it had been passed in charmingly friendly intercourse with a good and true, a simple-minded and noble-hearted man." Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Astronomer Hamilton. Royal for Ireland, died on the 2nd of September at the age of sixty. The Athenæum of the 9th states that "he became known as a mathematician of extraordinary genius when he was about twenty years old......There is no need to tell the mathematical world that it has lost one of its greatest members; we cannot enumerate for the world at large-most of the items are knowledge too high for them. His papers on systems of rays, on the methods of dynamics, on algebra looked at as the science of pure time, on discontinuous functions, on equations of the fifth degree, and his new algebra, the Quaternions, cannot be popularized. But there is one little result of which an idea can be given, one of the earliest of Hamilton's discoveries, and one which alone would carry down his name to posterity. Hamilton found, from optical theory alone, by reasoning on the properties of light, that under certain circumstances a ray, instead of being refracted as a ray, should, if the theory were Discovers true, split into a cone of rays. This conical refraction. refraction, on being looked for under the proper conical circumstances by Prof. Lloyd, was actually found to exist. No such phenomenon had ever been even imagined: and it may be justly said that no more remarkable triumph of theoretical prediction had then occurred in the history of science. If we must add to it, as a match, the prediction of Neptune by Leverrier and Adams, each of these brilliant feats does honour to the other......He was beloved for the kindness of his heart, and respected for the integrity of his character. No more need be said at this time: he was a man of whom full account will be given to the world.” The death of Sir William Hooker was soon to be followed by another heavy loss to science. Dr. John Lindley, "one of the most hardworking and celebrated botanists England has ever produced," died of apoplexy on Wednesday, the Ist of November, at his residence on Acton Green. He had worked too hard, and overstrained his brain. Dr. Lindley was born at Catton, Norfolk, in 1799, and at an early age turned his attention to the study of the vegetable kingdom. The Athenæum of November 4th says: "When he first entered scientific life, botany was just emancipating itself from the deadening influence of the artificial system, in this country upheld by a narrow-minded party. Whoever ventured to write or say anything against these sages was at once a marked man. The treatment which Dr. J. E. Gray Dr. John Horticultural Society. received for daring to publish the first British Flora, arranged according to the Natural system, is no isolated case. Dr. Lindley's history, and that of several other men of genius, furnish additional examples......The opposition he met with put him on his mettle, made him one of the most powerful and ready writers of the day, and secured to him a niche of fame which his early opponents never attained." He was assistant The Royal secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society from 1822 to 1858, when he was appointed secretary, which post he retained until 1862, and was Professor of Botany at University College, London, from 1829 to 1861. He had long felt the want of a good weekly gardening paper, such as Fred. Otto had established in Berlin, and the Gardeners' Chronicle was established in 1841. Dr. Lindley became the editor, and held that office until a short time The before his death. "The Botanical Register Register. offered another opportunity of advancing his favourite science, by figuring and describing the most remarkable new plants that came to this country. Many of our garden pets, The Gardeners' Botanical ་ the names of which have now become household words, such as Verbenas and Calceolarias, were first made known in the pages of that periodical. Dr. Lindley's particular favourites, however, were none of the plants |