80 THE JOURNAL OK BOTANY 



another large wood, consisting exclusively of Box, occupies a similar 

 position to that at Wootton, and extends for half a mile or more on 

 the steep side of the valley. It was afterwards found that this is 

 marked as "The Box Wood" in an old Ordnance map pubUshed 

 about fifty years ago, as well as in the six-inch map ; but this is 

 omitted in the recent one-inch map, in which only the names 

 " Boxwell Court " and " Boxwell Farm " are to be found. 



The name thus being evidently connected with the wood, a 

 search was made to discover, if possible, how long it had been in 

 use. The following interesting account was found in the History 

 of the CounUi of Gloucester, by the Rev. Thomas Rudge, pubUshed 

 at Gloucester in the year 1803 :—" Boxwell, anciently Boxewelle. 

 The name is derived from a box wood of about sixteen acres, within 

 a warren of forty acres, from which rises a plentiful spring. This 

 is the most considerable wood of the kind in England, excepting 

 Boxhill in Surrey, and from the name, which has now been on record 

 for more than seven centuries, it must have been of long standing."* 



This appears to leave no doubt that the Box is indigenous in 

 this valley, and there can therefore be no reason why it should not 

 also be a native of the woods at Wootton and Boxhill. Sir J. D. 

 Hooker, to whom I have communicated the result of this investi- 

 gation, tells me that it leaves no doubt in his mind that the plant 

 is truly wild in these localities, and adds that Bentham, whose know- 

 ledge of the conditions under which British plants are found on the 

 Continent was profound, regarded it as a native. 



Cedric Bucknall. 



ROBERT SMITH 

 (1873-1900). 



[A promising career has been cut short by the early death of 

 Robert Smith, which took place at Edinburgh on the 28th of August 

 last, from appendicitis, after an illness of only one day's duration. 

 He was born in Dundee on Dec. 11, 1873, and had been intended 

 for a business career, but the attractions of science proved too strong 

 for this, and he became an assistant under Prof. D'Arcy Thompson 

 in the zoological museum of the College, where he had previously 

 been a student, and where he took his B. Sc. degree in 1896. Soon 

 after this, he became Demonstrator in Botany under Prof. Patrick 

 Geddes, and from that time devoted himself to plants. Prof. 

 Thompson contributed a biography of Smith to College Echoes 

 (the students' Journal for the University) for Nov. 9th, and this, 

 with his permission, we reproduce, feeling confident that many of 

 our readers will like to know more of so interesting a personaUty. 



For the accompanying portrait we are indebted to the Scottish 

 Geographical Society, in whose Transactions it appeared.] 



• [««At Boxwel in Coteswold in Gloucestershire, and at Boxley in Kent 

 there be Woods of them. Mr. Aubry's Notes.'' Baii Syn. ii. 310 (1696). — Ed. 



JOURN. BOT.] 



