THE LATE FRANCIS BUCHANAN WHITE 75 



and many excursions were made by him to those districts of 

 the county from which his information was defective, and 

 which he thought it necessary to investigate more fully than 

 had previously been done. 



To naturally keen powers of discrimination he added a 

 close study of the leading " floras " of the European Continent, 

 and sought to determine more minutely than had hitherto 

 been attempted the relation of the plants of Scotland to the 

 same species as they exist on the Continent. He was thus 

 able to detect species and varieties not previously recognised 

 in Scotland ; and he published some of the results of his 

 studies in the " Scottish Naturalist," the " Journal of Botany," 

 and the " Proceedings and Transactions of the Perthshire 

 Society of Natural Science." In 1879-82 he published in 

 the " Scottish Naturalist " " Preliminary Lists " of the Fungi, 

 and of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of Perthshire, together 

 extending to upwards of eighty pages. Until his death he 

 never ceased to aim at rendering the work more accurate and 

 complete ; and, fortunately, he has left it in such a condition 

 that it can be published with very little alteration. It is 

 hoped that it will be issued this year, on behalf of the Perth- 

 shire Society of Natural Science, in whose prosperity Dr. 

 White was at all times so keenly interested. The " Flora of 

 Perthshire" will, it is believed, prove a worthy memorial of 

 a life spent in the study of the Natural History of his native 

 country, and in assisting others to gain that knowledge. 



His investigations led him to recognise the unsatisfactory 

 treatment accorded to the difficult genus Salix in British 

 Floras, with the result that he gave his attention very speci- 

 ally to this genus, and acquired a very minute knowledge of 

 its species, both in nature and in the works of systematists. 

 He accepted very fully the view that many of the puzzling 

 intermediate forms in the genus are hybrids, and that the 

 species hybridise most freely, even where, from their aspect, 

 one might not at first anticipate such a connection. As will 

 be seen below, he published several papers on the genus ; but 

 the most important is that entitled " A Revision of the 

 British Willows," extending to considerably over 100 pages 

 of the Linnean Society's Journal, in vol. xxvii. This is, 

 and will remain, a work of high value. 



