The Annals 



of 



Scottish Natural History 



No. 75] 



1910 



[JULY 



OBITUARY MEMOIR OF 

 WILLIAM HADDON BEEBY, F.L.S. 



By Rev. EDWARD S. MARSHALL, M.A., F.L.S. 



READERS of the " Scottish Naturalist " and its present 

 successor will hardly need to be told that the sudden death, 

 on 4th January, of the subject of this memoir, aged sixty, is 

 a very serious loss to British Botany generally, and more 

 particularly to that of Scotland ; as, for many years past, 

 his annual summer holidays had been spent in a careful and 

 systematic study of the Flora of Shetland, and the results 

 have been, from time to time, published in these pages. To 

 the present writer, who is indebted to him for much help, 

 especially in earlier days, these appear to be models of such 

 records, combining keen observation and the fruits of long 

 experience with close attention to detail and the most 

 scrupulous accuracy. 



Beeby made his mark while still a very young man ; 

 and he continued to add to our plant-knowledge, even after 

 failing health had befallen him. The earliest Shetland 

 paper from his pen known to me appeared in 1887 ; his 

 discoveries there included several " first notices '' of plants 

 as British, besides the species and varieties described by 

 himself. So far as I am aware, his only collections on the 

 Scottish mainland were made near Aberdeen ; but he was 

 75 B 



