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NATURAL SCIENCE. August, 



awarded the Royal medal twenty years later; in 1883 the University 

 of Edinburgh conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. In recognition of 

 his ability as a scientific worker he was enrolled an honorary member 

 of several foreign and English societies. Inspired at an early age with 

 a true natural history spirit, Williamson was led by his energy and 

 love of work to publish several papers on widely different branches of 

 natural science. In addition to his contributions at this early period 

 to scientific literature, it should be noted that many of the illustrations 

 of Yorkshire Mesozoic plants in Lindley and Hutton's classic work 

 were drawn by the same hand which in more recent years has enriched 

 the pages of the Royal Society's Transactions. During his residence in 

 Manchester as a medical practitioner, Williamson found time for 

 several contributions to different societies on palaeontological subjects. 

 At a meeting of the British Association, in 1842, he read a paper on 

 the "Origin of Coal," and from this preliminary note we may date the 

 beginning of his untiring devotion to the microscopical examination of 

 the structure of coal and the tissues of Carboniferous plants. From 

 time to time, at subsequent British Association meetings, short notes 

 have been given, showing the steady progress of his immense under- 

 taking to investigate the minute structure of the coals of the world, 

 and this work was continued up to a short time before his death, 

 when he generously handed over the work of many years to be com- 

 pleted by a younger worker. Most conspicuous among Williamson's 

 work prior to i860, are his valuable contributions to the History of 

 the Foraminifera. It was, indeed, in this branch of Natural History 

 that Williamson first established a reputation as an original investi- 

 gator. In later years his energies were centred in palaeobotanical 

 researches, and in this chosen field of work he achieved a splendid 

 success. The examination of fossil plants, originally confined to the 

 description and uncertain determination of structureless specimens, 

 was raised to the level of an accurate study by the use of the micro- 

 scope, inaugurated by Witham, Corda, and others, and followed up by 

 Binney, Carruthers and Williamson. It is not too much to say that 

 the labours of the latter author deserve to be spoken of as marking a 

 new era in palaeobotanical science. Among Williamson's earlier 

 papers, mention should be made of a detailed and exceedingly able 

 memoir on the well-known Jurassic fossils for which Carruthers 

 instituted the generic name of Williamsonia ; since this paper was read 

 before the Linnean Society, in 1868, various attempts have been made 

 to settle the botanical nature of this problematical genus, and recent 

 work tends to a large extent to confirm Williamson's conclusions. 

 Passing over other palaeobotanical contributions we must, finally, 

 refer to the invaluable series of memoirs " On the Organisation 

 of the Fossil Plants of the Coal-Measures," begun in 1871 and 

 completed in 1893. ^^ is impossible to give any adequate expression 

 of the importance of these memoirs in a short obituary notice. The 

 labour and scientific skill embodied in this legacy to botanical science 



