Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/462

 430 MB. F. C. S. ROPER. Freeman Clarke Samuel Roper, who died at Palgrave House, Eastbourne, on July 28th last, in his seventy-seventh year, was born at Hackney on Sept. 23rd, 1819. He was educated at the Hackney Grammar School, but entered business at a very early age, from which he retired, as the senior member of his firm, in 1874. During the many years that he lived in London, Mr. Roper took a keen interest in scientific pursuits, first in geology, and later in microscopy. In 1868 he took up his residence at Eastbourne, and during the later years of his life he devoted himself almost exclusively to botany. f'^ U 1 1 ! J 1 1 1 "-mi w i ,v»C Twenty-six papers stand under his name in the Royal Society's Catalogue up to 1883, and others were published by him subse- quently to that date. A glance through their titles shows that Mr. Roper had a general interest in natural history. His earliest papers deal with the Diatovmcea, of which he published numerous new species in the Journal of the Microscopical Society for 1854 and 1858. In these plants Mr. Roper was specially interested ; he had a large and valuable collection, which he bequeathed to the Department of Botany of the British Museum — a useful addition to the magnificent series alrealy there. After settling at Eastbourne, he took up the study