IN MEMORIAM 3 



the Scottish Naturalist and its predecessors he was closely 

 connected as contributor and editor. In 1883, on the retiral 

 of Buchanan White, he became sole editor of the earlier 

 Scottish Naturalist, and from the formation of the Annals of 

 Scottish Natural History in 1892 till 191 1 he was responsible 

 for the botanical section of that magazine. His interest in 

 the study of nature knew no limits ; his aim, as he himself 

 wrote in his first editorial announcement in 1883, was to 

 " render the Scottish Naturalist as widely and thoroughly 

 fitted as possible for promoting the advance of all depart- 

 ments of natural science in Scotland." This was the aim of 

 his own studies ; he constantly endeavoured to make effective 

 the biological unity which underlies the sciences of Zoology 

 and Botany. 



As a botanist, Trail's attainments are well known and his 

 place assured ; what did he accomplish for Scottish Zoology ? 

 For seven years from 1883 to 1890 he edited the Scottish 

 Naturalist, and so guided the expression of Scottish natural 

 history, but many years before he had himself begun to write. 

 While still no more than a student, in his nineteenth year, 

 his first contributions to knowledge, on Lepidoptera in 

 Aberdeenshire, appeared in the Entomologist's MontJily 

 Magazine. For several years, from 1870 onwards, his papers 

 and notes dealt wholly with zoological subjects, ranging 

 from local lists of Spiders, Lepidoptera, and fauna generally, 

 to notes on varieties of the Banded Snail and on abnormali- 

 ties in birds. During these early years Trail began in the 

 Scottish Naturalist the series of observations on Scottish 

 plant galls, caused by Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Mites, 

 which he continued at intervals from 1871 to 1907, and 

 which gained him a European reputation as an authority 

 on gall-formation and gall-formers. 



A perusal of his papers during the first twenty years of 

 his publishing life shows unmistakably that zoology was 

 Trail's first and compelling love, and indeed his mastery 

 of the subject led to his being elected, on the retiral of 

 Professor James Nicol in 1878, to fill the Chair of Natural 

 History at Aberdeen until a permanent successor should be 

 appointed. It was only natural in later years, after the duties 



