The Annals 



of 



Scottish Natural History 



NO. 37] 1901 [JANUARY 



ROBERT SMITH, B.Sc. 



WE have rarely to record the death, at an early age, of one 

 who has already made his mark in science ; but the death 

 of Robert Smith, on 28th August 1900, in his 26th year, 

 has deprived Scotland of one who had given promise of an 

 honoured and useful life in the advancement of the science 

 of botany. A student of Dundee University College, he 

 took his B.Sc. in 1895 "with distinction," and became 

 Demonstrator of Botany in the College. A botanist by taste 

 from boyhood, he devoted himself to the science with ever- 

 growing love for it. As Research Scholar of the Franco- 

 Scottish Society, he studied during a session under Professor 

 Flahault in the University of Montpellier, giving especial 

 attention to the associations shown among plants in their 

 native habitats ; and he resolved to work out the distribution 

 of the flora of Scotland from this side. On his return to 

 Scotland he began this work, and continued it with unceas- 

 ing industry until his death, taxing his strength by the 

 journeys he made, often on foot for great distances, and by 

 the labour involved in recording his observations. He was 

 fortunately able to make public a part of the results of his 

 labour. His first publication was a paper on ' Plant Associa- 

 tions of the Tay Basin,' published in the " Proceedings of the 

 Perthshire Society of Natural Science" in 1898. A paper 

 37 B 



