100 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



undertaken within a month of his death. His readiness to help was 

 shown by his active association with such local bodies as the York- 

 shire Naturalists' Union, in whose meetings and excursions he fre- 

 quently took part, and with the Leeds Naturalists' Society ; he was 

 also always glad to encourage young beginners — a lad at the Leeds 

 School sfjeaks gmtefuUy of his kindness and warm-heartedness, and 

 of the help Lees gave him in collecting. 



In 1905 Lees disposed of his herbarium and library to the Brad- 

 ford Public Libraries Committee ; the former, containing 25,000 

 specimens, was placed in the Cartwright Memorial Hall ; the latter, 

 of more than 500 volumes and pamphlets, of which the Committee 

 in 1909 issued an excellent Catalogue, in the Reference Library. 

 In the following year the Committee j:)ublished Lees's description of 

 the herbarium, to which reference has already been made and which, 

 apart from its autobiographical interest, may be commended to 

 those who collect curiosities of literature : the concluding sentence 

 indicates that additions were in contemplation, "to the End that 

 when the whole has been arranged, mounted, and (as far as possible) 

 fully labelled, it shall be and continue to be an Evergreen although 

 a ' Dried- Garden ' for the mind: an exemplary because a Truth- 

 witnessing history of its fair subject — in fine, a befitting Monument 

 to Flora (or Ceres) ' when in sorrow and cultivation was neglected,' 

 crowned Avith that Laiirus nohilis which grows in svich wise as ever 

 seems to make it the breath of sweetest symbolism and honour." 



Mr. Pickard informs me that Lees left in MS. a volume on " The 

 Vegetation of Yorkshire " ; arrangements for the publication of this 

 were in progress (see Journ. Bot. 1914, 22) before the outbreak of 

 the War which was responsible for the postponement of so many 

 schemes, and it is greatly to be hoped that it may see the light. Lees 

 also wrote a Flora of Craven in Wharfedale, the MS. of which is in 

 Mr. Pickard's possession, and left a herbarium of considerable extent, 

 formed during his later years. 



Although Botany was his chief attraction, Lees devoted some 

 attention to other branches of natural history. He was a man of 

 varied interests, much occupied with questions of the day : an 

 omnivorous reader, he had considerable knowledge of dialects, and 

 formed a collection of rare and obsolete words. 



Lees is commemorated in the variety Leesii of Carex ijihdifera,, 

 which was described and figured in this Journal for April, 1881 

 (p. 97, t. 218), by Mr. H. N. Ridley from specimens collected by 

 Lees near Knaresborough in the preceding year and sent by him to 

 the National Herbarium. He had already indicated its distinctness 

 in Science Gossip for December, 1880, and proposed for it the name 

 saxumlrciy in reference to its habitat ; his note is reprinted in Journ. 

 Bot. 1881, p. 24; the plant is now regarded as identical with 

 var. longe-hracteata Lange. 



James Britten. 



