measure was again rejected by the House of Commons. Mr. Baines was a member of the Schools Inquiry Commission (1865 to 1868), and a supporter of the Endowed Schools Act of 1869, and the Elementary Education Act of 1870. As one of the leading Dissenting members, he took an active part in opposition to Church Rates and University Tests, and in supporting the Irish Church Disestablishment Bill. He was also a decided friend of the Repeal of the Corn Laws, and every measure of Free Trade. In Dec. 1880, he received the honour of knighthood. He is a Magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire.
BAIRD, Spencer Fullerton, LL.D., born at Reading, Pennsylvania, Feb. 3, 1823. He was educated at Dickinson College, where he became Professor of Natural Science in 1846. In 1855 he was appointed Assistant-Secretary to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, and on the death of Professor Henry, in 1878, succeeded him as Secretary. He is editor and translator of the "Iconographic Encyclopædia," New York, 1851; is author of various papers on zoology, and of reports on natural history-collections made by Captains Stansbury and Marcy, and Lieutenant Gilliss, the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, and the Pacific Railroad Survey. He has also published, in conjunction with John Cassin, "The Birds of North America" (2 vols., 1860); and "The Mammals of North America," 1861, and in connection with Charles Girard, a "Catalogue of Serpents in North America," 1862. In 1864 he commenced a work upon the birds of the New World generally, under the title, "Review of American Birds in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution." He has, for several years, been engaged in the preparation of a new account of the birds of North America, in which he is assisted by Dr. T. M. Brewer, of Boston. In 1871 he was appointed by the President, United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, for the purpose of making inquiries into the causes of the decrease of the food fishes of the United States, and the methods of restoring them. He has published in various scientific periodicals, and in the reports, of the Smithsonian Institution, numerous papers upon the mammals, birds, and fishes of North America. He has also several years furnished to Harper's Magazine, a monthly résumé of the progress of science, and prepared an annual volume describing the advances made in science during the year.
BAKER, John Gilbert, F.R.S., F.L.S., born at Guisborough, in Yorkshire, Jan. 13, 1834, and educated at schools belonging to the Society of Friends at Ackworth and York; was appointed Assistant-Curator of the Herbarium of the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 1856, which office he still holds. He was for many years Lecturer on Botany to the London Hospital; and was for many years one of the assistant editors to Seemann's Journal of Botany. Formerly Mr. Baker was Curator, and afterwards Secretary, of the London Botanical Exchange Club. His works on descriptive botany are as follows:—"Synopsis Filicum," a descriptive catalogue of all known ferns, with plates of the genera—a work planned and commenced by the late Sir W. Hooker, 1868, 2nd edit. 1874; "Monograph of the Ferns of Brazil," in folio, 1870, with 50 plates; and since of the "Compositæ, Ampelidæ and Connaraceæ" of the same county; "Revision of the order Liliaceæ," 7 parts, 1870–80; "Monograph of the British Roses," 1869; "Monograph of the British Mints," 1865; Monographs of Papilionaceæ and other Orders in Oliver's "Flora of Tropical Africa," 1868–1871; "Descriptions of the
