98 TJIE JOURNAL OF 150TANY 



cleniantls of making a livelihood." This characteristic sentence is 

 taken from Lees's largel}' autobiographical Description of the Lees 

 Jlerhurium and Lihrary, published by the Bradford Public Libi-arv 

 (which contains both) in 1910. From this we learn that on leaving 

 school Lees was apprenticed to a surgeon at Headingley. and attended 

 the lectures on Botany at the Leeds Medical School. The ])resenta- 

 tation of Babington's Manifal as an extra prize gave " the first 

 decided impulse towards the formation of a herbarium worthy of the 

 name," though it was not until 1872 that he began to " study 

 field-Botany analytically as well as lovingly." 



The earlier days of his medical practice gave Lees many oppor- 

 tunities of becoming acquainted with vai'ious aspects of the British 

 iiora : he was successivel}'' stationed at Hartlepool (1S73, in which 

 A^ear he visited Italv), Walton-in-Furness, Market Kasen (1S77), 

 Warrington (ISSl),*^ Kidderminster (1882), and Beading (188:]). 

 Prom 1888 to 1887 he was poor-law surgeon in the Hawes district 

 of the Haysgarth Union ; he went thence to Heckmondwyke and 

 then retui-ned to Leeds, where, save for a period (1898—4) at Harro- 

 gate, he resided until his deatli on Sept. 21, 1921. 



It was during his residence at Hartlejwol that the Botanical 

 Locality llecord Club — a title subsequently shortened by the omission 

 of the second word — was established with the object of '* the Yerifi- 

 cation and re-record, or expunging, of all old stations for rare 

 })lants, the publication of an annual record of the exact localities, and 

 the formation of a herbarium." This detinition, from the circular pro- 

 posing the formation of the Club, is taken from a notice (by Trinien) 

 in this Journal for 1878 (p. 1(30), in which the scheme was criticised 

 with the result that in actual working it was subsequently moditied. 

 Specimens were to be sent to Lees, " wlio, after authentication, will 

 forward them to Mr. T. B. Blow, of Welwyn, Herts, who will act as 

 keeper of the herbaiium," and who also undertook the Treasurer- 

 shi]) : these posts Mr. Blow resigned in 1880, when he was succeeded 

 by Mr. Charles Bailey. From a prefatory note to the Eeport for 

 1880 (issued in 1882), we learn that H. C. Watson, "taken from us 

 by the operation of the one immutable decree of Physical Law, 

 took a warm interest in the Club ; but for his more than kindly 

 encoui-agement, the Kecord Club would probably have had only an 

 ephemeral existence ; by his death it has lost its most powerful 

 friend — its kindliest critic." Lees acted as " Kecorder " and Editor 

 of the Beports from their fii-st issue (1873) until 1886, when the 

 Club apparently ceased to exist. This is no place for a history of 

 the Club ; it may be noted, however, that the voucher-specimens for 

 the i-ecords w^ere sent to Kew, whence the}^ were transferred in 1884 

 to the l)e])artment of Botany, where they are incorjjorated with the 

 British Herbarium. The Summary of Comital Planl-DislriJmtion, 

 issued in 1878 under Lees\s name as an independent publication, is a 

 textual reprint (repa^-ed) of pp. 259-807 of the lleports of the Chib 

 for 1878-77. He also edited (1881) the second edition of The 

 London Catalof/ae of British j\l< sses, published under the direction 

 of the Clid) in 1877 ; to this lie added the He])atics, to which at that 

 time he paid much attention. 



