The Scottish Naturalist. 243 



he was always unwearied in his efforts to render his instructions 

 effective and trustworthy expositions of the subject that it fell to 

 him to teach. In the class-room, in the laboratory and in the 

 field he won the attention of the students, and communicated to 

 them his extensive] stores of information ungrudgingly ; and he 

 possessed a great power of illustrating the points under discussion 

 by examples, and by his ability as a draughtsman. 



He contributed numerous papers to the pages of the publica- 

 tions of the Edinburgh Botanical and Royal Societies, to the 

 Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, and to the Journal of 

 Botany. Among the more important of his numerous investigations 

 were those upon the morphology of the reproductive organs 

 of the Conifers, on the embryology of Tropaeolum, Pinguicula, 

 Zostera, Phoenix, &c, on Pitcher- plants, and on Hepaticse. 



His personal qualities were such as to win the cordial friend- 

 ship and esteem of all with whom he came into contact ; and he 

 will continue to be most regretted by those to whom he was most 

 intimately known. He was an excellent landlord ; and took a 

 warm interest in all that related to the welfare of his tenantry. 

 He was an accomplished musician, and was especially fond of 

 Gaelic airs, many of which he noted down in his visits to the 

 Highlands on Botanical excursions. He was never married. 



His death was very sudden. Though not a man of robust 

 health, he was not in any respect an invalid ; and two days before 

 Christmas he left Edinburgh in his usual health, to spend a week 

 or two at his Lanarkshire residence, Hartree House. For several 

 days he spent much of his time in his favourite amusement of 

 curling. On Friday, 30th December, he was engaged in a curling 

 match in which he was much interested ; and he had just made 

 an entry with a pencil of some results, being " skip " of his side, 

 when he was seen to fall backwards, and was caught by a friend, 

 but died almost immediately. 



He has been succeeded in his professorship by Prof. I. Bayley 

 Balfour, the son of his predecessor, Prof. J.H. Balfour. 



We record with regret the death, on 31st January, 18S8, of Dr. 

 John Thomas Irvine Boswell Boswell of Balmuto, Fifeshire, 

 perhaps better known as Dr. J. T. Boswell Syme. He was the 



