PETER MACOWAN". 75 



anecdote at one moment as he was with an appropriate passage 

 from the Greek classics at another. Now it would be Homer, 

 and then Oliver Wendell Holmes, for with both he had an equally 

 intimate acquaintance, and one or other of these stores of culture 

 and learning seemed alwa^^s at call when he wished to point a 

 moral or adorn a tale. The Philosopher was many a time sum- 

 moned from his breakfast-table — and, what is more, from that 

 " vasty deep " he seemed to come, and to enter into the actual 

 being, fibre and marrow, of the speaker, so that the latter appeared 

 his very alter ego. Under such circumstances, it is needless to re- 

 mark, the botanical class-room was the very antithesis of being 

 dry-as-dust : the lectures sparkled alternately with satire and 

 humour, while quotation, anecdote and reminiscence combined 

 to drive home many a point, which but for those associations 

 would perchance have passed unheeded through the sieve-like 

 student-mind. His blackboard diagrams — like his word-paintings 

 — were generally rapidly accomplished by means of the fewest 

 possible master-strokes, but whenever these were made they 

 pithily conveyed the exact impression intended, and he was a 

 dull student who would remain untouched by the Professor's 

 almost boyish enthusiasm. 



Newton had his favourite cats, Clerk-Maxwell his dogs. In 

 this respect, as well as in his retentive memory. Professor MacOwan 

 resembled the latter. Daily one saw him strolling ofhcewards 

 followed by a string of pug dogs, and how carefully a sick one 

 was nursed : many a time he was seen walking home, at the close 

 of his day's work, with his especial pet under his arm. But, in 

 spite of his fondness for dogs, he was none the less an emulator 

 of Newton, and a photograph of the herbarium clearly show^s the 

 pendent reel, hung in position for the amusement of his feline 

 companion. 



In private life Dr. MacOwan was exceptionally entertaining : 

 his vivacity, and the extraordinarily wide range of his reading 

 made him a most entrancing conversationalist. His versatility 

 was wonderful : there were few subjects with which he did not 

 show a closer acquaintance than the average man who chanced 

 to be conversing with him. This range of knowledge did not 

 even confine itself within the limits of literature and science. 

 Bookbinding, seal collecting, wood and metal work and Con- 

 fucianism are mentioned as instances of conversational topics 

 wherein this wide display of knowledge was illustrated, and, to 

 cap everything else that is sub-lunary, he was one of the most 

 untiring as well as most methodical of men. To this last qualiiica- 

 tion may be ascribed the fact that for many years he examined 

 and classified, single-handed, multitudinous floral specimens from 

 all parts of the world, and carried on a varied correspondence 

 with scores of strangers who sought for information regarding 

 South Africa from a cultural point of view, information which 

 only Dr. MacOwan's extensive knowledge of the country's climate 

 and flora could enable anyone to give. 



Dr. MacOwan's unflagging assiduity is in no respect capable 

 of better illustration than by the fact that when he took charge 



