TheNEWSLETTER AND PROCEEDINGS Linnean OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON Volume 32 Number 2 October 2016 Marimo Alexander Gibson FLS Devonian Discoveries When is a moss ball Museum in India First fossils at Rhynie not a moss ball? celebrates Fellow and more… A forum for natural history The Linnean Society of London Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BF UK Toynbee House, 92–94 Toynbee Road, Wimbledon SW20 8SL UK (by appointment only) +44 (0)20 7434 4479 www.linnean.org [email protected] @LinneanSociety President SECRETARIES COUNCIL Prof Paul Brakefi eld FRS Scienti fi c The Offi cers () Vice Presidents Vice Presidents Prof Simon Hiscock Dr Malcolm Scoble Ms Rosie Atkins Prof Juliet Brodie Dr Paul Bates Prof Simon Hiscock Editorial Dr Francis Brearley Dr Malcolm Scoble Prof Mark Chase FRS Dr Maarten Christenhusz Prof Max Telford Ms Laura D'Arcy Collecti ons Prof Jeff rey Duckett Dr Michael Fay Treasurer Dr John David Dr Zerina Johanson Ms Debbie Wright Strategy Dr Christopher Michaels Dr Paul Smith Prof David Cutler Dr Rosie Trevelyan Dr Mark Watson THE TEAM Executi ve Secretary Librarian Conservator Dr Elizabeth Rollinson Mrs Lynda Brooks Ms Janet Ashdown Financial Controller & Deputy Librarian Mrs Elaine Charwat Special Publicati ons Manager Membership Offi cer Ms Leonie Berwick Mr Priya Nithianandan Archivist Ms Liz McGow Educati on Offi cer Buildings & Offi ce Manager Archivist emerita Dr Rhys Grant Ms Victoria Smith Ms Gina Douglas Communicati ons & Events Room Hire & Membership Educati on Project Offi cer Manager Ms Alicia Fernandez Assistant Ms Tati ana Franco Mr Ross Ziegelmeier Editor Publishing in The Linnean Ms Gina Douglas The Linnean is published twice a year, in April and October. All [email protected] contributi ons are welcome, but please contact the Editor or see Producti on Editor the Guidelines for Contributors document on our website before Ms Leonie Berwick writi ng and submitti ng arti cles (www.linnean.org). [email protected] Arti cles should be emailed to the Editor in MS Word format, or sent on disc. Images should be sent as JPEGs or TIFFs at no less than 300dpi. Correct copyright informati on for images should The Linnean Steering Group accompany the arti cle. Dr Fernando Vega Prof Pieter Baas Cover image: Cladophora, Lake Akan from Flickr/Yu-Chin Lin Dr Sarah Whild Dr Michael R Wilson Dr Mary Morris ISSN 0950-1096 Charity Reference No. 220509 The Linnean Newslett er and Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London Editorial / Gina Douglas 1 Society News / Elizabeth Rollinson 2 Library News / Lynda Brooks 4 Correspondence / Mike Butt olph Hugh L Pearson 7 Marimo, Cladophora, Posidonia and Other Plant Balls / Jennifer Bryant & Linda Irvine 11 Contents Dr Alexander Gibson Museum: India Commemorates a Linnean Fellow / Dr Sati sh A Pande 15 Dr John White FLS - Surgeon-General of New South Wales: A Portrait by Thomas Watling / E Charles Nelson 21 Who First Discovered Devonian Fossils at Rhynie? / Hugh L Pearson 23 In Memoriam / Jim Green FLS 28 Book Reviews: The Lord Treasurer of Botany / The Wood for the Trees 29 Anniversary Meeti ng Minutes 2016 34 Editorial ast year the Society’s current journal publishing contract with Wiley Blackwell came up for review Land was put out to tender. A decision was made to move the Society’s journal publishing to Oxford University Press but the new contract does not include provision for the printi ng and distributi on ofThe Linnean, so this will be the last issue to go out through Wiley Blackwell. Future issues will be printed and distributed using independent printers in the same way as the Society produces paper copies of PuLSe and other printed materials, and Fellows should see no change in distributi on or quality of product. This issue includes the Minutes of the Anniversary Meeti ng and, as before, the citati ons for medals and of London © The Linnean Society awards have been edited to reduce their length but retain the key reasons for the nominati on. We plan to include more book reviews in the immediate future. Rather than have them spread through the Society’s journals, all book reviews will be available in The Linnean and PuLSe. If you are interested in becoming a book reviewer for The Linnean please let me know; guidelines for reviews will be sent out upon request, and will be online (www. linnean.org/thelinnean). Please also keep submitti ng your correspondence, as well as longer arti cles likely to be of interest to the Fellowship. I must also express my thanks to members of the Linnean Steering Group for reviewing and contributi ng helpful feedback on submissions. Gina Douglas, Editor [email protected] 1 THE LINNEAN VOL 32(2) OCTOBER 2016 ollowing the results of the EU referendum in June, the Linnean Society is contributi ng to the Royal Society of Biology’s eff orts to ensure that the biological Fsciences are fi rmly on the agenda. Collaborati on (and access to funding) with EU partners is hugely important to research across all disciplines, and the UK does not want to be left a fringe player. Questi ons also arise regarding legislati on, where the UK is signed up as an EU member, especially legislati on pertaining to biodiversity, such as the CBD and CITES. It was ti mely therefore that at the end of September the Society’s Taxonomy & Systemati cs Committ ee focused its Plenary Session on understanding and implementi ng environmental legislati on, especially the Nagoya Protocol, providing a forum for discussion on this evolving issue. The Society, together with the Systemati cs Associati on, was delighted to announce Society News the 31 recipients of the 2015/16 Systemati cs Research Fund awards, with projects encompassing a wide range of geographies and species. The Society also hosted a day meeti ng in September for MSc students from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Queen Mary University of London to present their research projects, while Key Stage 3 pupils, together with their teachers and families, thoroughly enjoyed the BioMedia Meltdown (BMM) Project Celebrati on evening on Ecosystems. The Society is growing its educati on team by retaining Ross Ziegelmeier (current BMM Project Manager) to implement our ‘Placing the Collecti ons at the Centre of Educati on and Public Engagement’ project, producing brief, curriculum-linked videocasts about items in the Society’s Collecti ons. Hazel Leeper, our producti ve Educati on Offi cer for almost four years, left in June to pursue a PGCE, and we are delighted to welcome Dr Rhys Grant fresh from his post-doctoral studies at Cambridge University—Rhys hopes to generate replicas for educati onal use via 3D printi ng, a facility that would be especially useful where original heritage items are too delicate for handling. Rhys is also gathering feedback from students all over the country in order to help us bett er understand what they would like from the Society, and will be parti cipati ng in the Bioscience Careers Festi val at Kings College Cambridge, amongst other events. Of course, the Society’s major change has been the reti rement in May of Professor Gren Lucas OBE HonFLS, the Honorary Treasurer for 21 years. Gren’s remarkable contributi on to the Society was celebrated at the Conversazione in July, when many friends and colleagues gathered to pay tribute to his outstanding service—he leaves Prof Gren Lucas OBE FLS receives an original the Society in excellent fi nancial watercolour of the Library by Helen Cowdy from fett le and is conti nuing to President Paul Brakefi eld work closely with the incoming Images: Gren Lucas and Open House © The Linnean Society of London; WNT cover courtesy Black Dog Publishing courtesy of London; WNT cover and Open House © The Linnean Society Lucas Gren Images: 2 Society News A young Charles Darwin joined us for Open House Treasurer, Deborah Wright, in parti cular on plans to develop the Society’s asset of Toynbee House, which has doubled in value since purchase in 2012. Collaborati ve events around Burlington House Courtyard conti nue to be highly successful, with the fi ve Societi es variously parti cipati ng in the summer Courtyard Lates; our Deputy Librarian, Elaine Charwat, ran Nature and the Enlightenment tours in July. Other popular events have been the Society’s Symposium at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University in Boston, where a number of UK and US FLS presented, the Debate on evoluti onary medicine chaired by Paul Jepson, the Science Policy lecture by Kevin Gaston and the two-day meeti ng on grasses in honour of Derek Clayton’s 90th Birthday. The autumn lecture season opened with Philip Stevenson's outstanding presentati on on pollinators Sex, Drugs and Ecosystem Services, and yet another well-att ended Open House day on 17 September, followed by the exciti ng ‘Wild New Territories’ event Portraits of the Urban and the Wild, linking cultural and environmental ecologies. There are many more treats in store, including wildfl owers, Springwatch, de-worm- ing and ethnobotany, so check the new Events Brochure and website, and be sure to join us for the Founder’s Day lecture when prize-winning author and historian Andrea Wulf will tell us about Alexander von Humboldt and The Inventi on of Nature. Elizabeth Rollinson, Executi ve Secretary [email protected] 3 THE LINNEAN VOL 32(2) OCTOBER 2016 t is very pleasing to report that two new staff appointments have been made recently. In In one case, an IAugust Andrea Deneau returned to the Society Adopter rallied as our new part-ti me Digital Assets Manager. She support from family, is currently undertaking a systemati c audit of the “ Online Collecti ons.