In 1864 he was awarded a PhD from the University of Zurich. He was awarded two gold medals by the Royal Horticultural Society of Tuscany in 1874. He served as an advisory commissioner to the Paris exhibition in 1867, and as a juror on the Botanical and Horticultural Congress in Saint Petersburg in 1869. He was elected an associate of the Linnaean Society in 1841 and later a fellow in 1861. He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1845. He was also a member of the Imperial Zoological and Botanical Society of Vienna, and a corresponding member of the Natural Society of Strasbourg.