146 WILLIAM DAWSON, LATK OF LEEDS. 



that lie had any family. Tlie circumstance is, liowevor, interesting, as sug- 

 gesting means of informing himself concerning the Flora of that district, 

 which he may be supposed to have possessed, and to have had the oppor- 

 tunity of verifying. Several Settle plants, since recorded, will be found in 

 Mr. Dawson's list. 



The negociations for a partnership between Mr. Dawson and his former 

 pupil not having been successful, he took his nephew, Mr. James Lucas, 

 into partnership, and as he himself scarcely professed openitive surgery, Mr. 

 Iley had Mr. Lucas associated with him in the surgical staff of the Leeds 

 Infirmary, on its foundation. The latter gentleman subsequently attained 

 considerable fame as a surgeon and author on Medical Education; and 

 having retired from practice, in 1794, finally settled at Ripon, where he died, 

 in 1814. (vide Pearson's Life of Hey, page 36.) On the death of Mr. Lucas' 

 Avidow, his library, including several of Mr. Dawson's works on Natural 

 History were sold, as well as two large collections of dried plants. The 

 latter were purchased by Captain Viner, who presented them to the Ripon 

 Mechanics' Institute. Of his books, a few came, by purchase, into the pos- 

 session of the writer, including Tournefort's Institutiones Rei Herbarise, 

 Gmelins' Flora Sibirica, vol. 1, and an interleaved copy of Wilson's Synopsis 

 of British Plants, containing, in MSS., the localities, of which the list given 

 at the end is a selection. 



During 1775-6, Mr. Dawson's health seems to have declined, and he pro- 

 bably did not live long after this period. Some letters, from a relative to a 

 niece of his, written about this time, allude to his sufferings in terms which 

 evince the esteem in which the Naturalist was held by his relatives and 

 friends. These are now in the possession of Mr. Lucas' niece, having come 

 to her through her mother, Mrs. Moore, a niece of Mr. Dawson, and wife of 

 the Vicar of Doncaster. They are addressed to her aunt, Mr. Lucas' sister. 



Mr. Dawson's name, as a successful cultivator of botanical science, is not 

 wholly unknown to fame, for we find him incidentally noticed in Pulteney's 

 Progress of Botany; and in Blackstone's Specimen Botanicum, (piiblished in 

 London, in 1746,) thirteen localities, for rare plants, are given on his 

 authority ; these latter mostly occur in his list appended to the copy of Wil- 

 son's Synopsis. The list alluded to, is entitled " Observations on the Plants 

 growing wild about the town of Leeds, Avith their Habitats and Time of 

 Flowering." This description is scarcely, however, sufficiently comprehen- 

 sive, as several Settle localities, as well as others, are noticed, under the 

 heads of the different species enumerated. The time of flowering is accu- 

 rately specified ; and, in some cases, it is used to fix the distinction of nearly 

 allied species. For instance : both Epipactis ovalis and Epiptactis rubra are 

 noticed ; but the one is said to flower in July, the other in June. This kind 

 of distinction is sanctioned by the authority of Sir J. E. Smith, who calls in 

 question the localities given by Deering, for Orchis hireinn, from the very 



