ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



with the 



coming 

 taught 



THE LATE JOHN ROY, LL.D. 



THE death of Dr. Roy has left a gap in the ranks of Scottish 

 botanists that will not easily be filled ; while his researches 

 among the freshwater Algae, and especially among the Des- 

 midiecc, brought him into wide correspondence with students 

 of these groups in foreign lands. He was born on 24th 

 February 1828 at Ardoch, in the Parish of Fovvlis Wester 

 in Perthshire. He received his education in the parish school 

 there, and afterwards in the Normal College of the Church of 



Scotland, in Edinburgh, 

 view to be- 

 a teacher. He 

 for five or six 

 years in the school of 

 Brackmuirhill in Kincar- 

 dineshire. Thereafter he 

 was appointed teacher in 

 a school at the Old Bridge 

 of Don, near Aberdeen, 

 where he remained for 

 three or four years. In 

 1863 he received the 

 charge of Dr. Brown's 

 school in Skene Square, 

 Aberdeen, which was 

 afterwards taken over by 

 the School Board, and is 

 now known as Skene 

 Square Public School. 



He remained in this position till last year, when he retired 

 because of ill health, on a retiring allowance, after long and 

 honourable public service. Of robust nature, not readily 

 fatigued, he took great pleasure in long rambles in search of 

 plants. Probably few persons were better acquainted with 

 Mid and Northern Scotland, from the sea-level to the corries 

 and summits of the highest mountains. In such rambles he 

 was a most agreeable companion ; and his accurate know- 

 ledge of the plants themselves, and of the habitats of the 



