1909. Obituary. 235 



OBITUARY. 





JOHN HENRY DA VIES. 



John Henry Davies, of Leuaderg House, Co. Down, whose death 

 took place suddenly at Belfast on the 20th August, was the son of Peter 

 Davies, of Penketh, near Warrington, where he was born in 1838, and 

 educated at a private school in Penketh, conducted by members of the 

 Society of Friends. In early life, while his father resided at Ballitore, 

 Co. Kildare, Davies developed a taste for botany, and gained a good 

 knowledge of the plants included in the Irish flora, making from the 

 first a speciality of mosses, and corresponding amongst others with 

 Professor W. H. Harvey, of Trinity College, Dublin, and William Wilson 

 of Warrington ; specimens of mosses collected by him in Wicklow and 

 Kildare in 1857, appear in the Herbarium of Trinity College. 



in business he was engaged for nearly forty years in the Messrs. 

 Richardson's, Glenmore Bleach-works, nearLisburn, where he was in the 

 position of manager up to eight years ago. P'or the last seven years he 

 was managing director of another linen bleach-green at Lenaderg, near 

 Banbridge. Owing to his long association with this branch of the linen 

 manufacture, he was well known throughout Ulster, and recognized as 

 an authority upon all matters connected with it. 



In 1856, during a short visit to the Isle of Man, Davies compiled a list 

 of all the mosses that he could find on the island, which was subsequently 

 published in the Phytologist for 1857, and was his first published contri- 

 bution to science. He joined the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club in 

 1871, and took an active part in the work of the Society. He was also 

 a member of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. 



During his residence of half a century at Glenmore in Antrim, and 

 Lenaderg in Down, Davies's botanical work was confined almost 

 exclusively to mosses, of which he was successful in discovering one 

 species new to the British Islands, and several new to Ireland. His 

 enthusiasm in moss-hunting for a day or an afternoon was as keen to the 

 last as it had been in his boyhood, and he was always provided with a 

 small pocket vasculum in which to place plants that he might unex- 

 pectedly meet with. He had a keen eye, and in his rambles in localities 

 close to both his places of residence he often picked up rarities which 

 had escaped the notice of other investigators. Those who knew him 

 best will not easily forget his tall and stately person, his handsome and 

 kindly features, his genial manners, and aptitude and readiness in 

 imparting information on botanical subjects, and his always having in 

 his pockets specimens of some unusual form of some moss or other — 

 what muscologists term " puzzles " — which he invariably produced and 

 made the subject of conversation. 



His botanical work is described at length in the papers which from 

 time to time he contributed to the pages of the Phytologist and Irish 

 Naturalist, of which a list of the more important is given below. 



