GRIFFITH, WILLIAM, was born in the year 1810, and having been destined for the medical profession, he completed his education at University College, then called the University. Ile diatin guithed himself in the medical einem, but more especially In that of botany, of which Dr. Lindley was the professor. He went out to India all an assistant-surgeon on the Madras establishment, wbero he arrived on the 24th of September 1832. Shortly after his arrival he was appointed by the Bengal government to examine the botany of Tenasserini In 1835 ho and Dr. M'Clelland were selected to accompany Dr. Wallich Into Assam for the purpose of reporting upon the growth of the tea-plant. From Assam he proceeded in company with Dr. Ilayfield to examine the then unexplored tracts which lie beyond Luddya and Ara, on the extreme frontier of the eastern territories of Great Britain. In 1837 be was appointed to accompany Captain Pemberton on his mission to Bootan. Two years afterwards, in 1839, be was sent with the army of the Indue to examine the character of the vegetation of Afghanistan. During these several journeys be lost no opportunity of making observations and collecting objects in natural history. Although his appointments mostly bad regard to his botanical knowledge, his reports, and letters written during his jouroeys, as well as his papers, show that there was little of interest to the naturalist that escaped his notice. In his travels be collected both plants and animals. In collecting plants he had the object in view of writing a ' Flora of India,' and to this great work be never ceased to devote himself. Many of his zoological specimens were cent to Europe, and have been described and published by various naturalists. lie devoted much time to the fresh-water fiches of India, of which ho made a large collection, and an account of them has been given in the 'Calcutta Journal of Natural History.' At the time of his death his collection of birds consisted of about six hundred specimens, affording perhaps one of the most extensive and instructive illustrations of the geographical distribution of the birds of India extant.
In 1841 Griffith was appointed to the medical duties at Malacca, and upon Dr. Wallich's absence owing to illness, he was appointed to the superintendence of the Botanical Garden at Calcutta, and the duties of the Professor of Botany in the Medical College. On the
return of Dr. Wallich ho resumed his place at Malacca, and was there seized with the disease of his liver, which terminated his existence on the 9th of February 1845.
Griffith's was a life rather of promise than fulfilment. Ho was educated in England at a time when the blind deference which was paid to the authority of Linn:ens as the end of botanical inquiry was beginning to pass away under the influence of the writing and teaching of Professor Lindley at University College; and when the genius and profoundly philosophical views of Robert Brown were becoming appreciated by his countrymen. Ho saw the right directiou of botanical investigation, and in the wide field for research which his residence in India afforded aimed at something more than the collecting of specimens and the descriptions of species. His life was too short to observe much, and his illness too rapid to afford opportunity for publishing many of the results of his observations. He has however loft papers scattered in journals and Transactions, which indicate very extraordinary powers of observation, and throw much light ou the subjects on which they treat. Among these papers may be specially mentioned those Ou the Ovulum of Santalum, °eyrie, Loranthua, and Viacom,' ' On the Structure and Relations of the Various Forms of Ilbizanthe,' in the 18th and succeeding volumes of the Transactions of the Linnwan Society.' Amongst other contributions to botany by Griffith are—' A Memoir of the Structure of Salvinia and Azolla.' in tho Calcutta Journal or Natural History ;' a 'Description of Two genera of Ilamamelidx, two species of Podostemon, and one species of Kaulfussia,' in the Asiatic Researches' on the family of Ithizo phorne, and a report on the Tea-plant of Upper Assam,' in the • Transactions of the Agricultural Society of Calcutta.' G1tI3IALDI, FRANCESCO MARIA, an Italian philosopher, and a member of the order of Jesuits, was born at Bologna in 1619. His education being completed, he was, according to Moutucla, employed during several years in giving instruction in the belles-lettres; and during the latter part of his life he applied himself to the atudy of astronomy and optics. Ho died at Bologna, iu 1663, in the forty fourth year of his age.