LINNEAW SOCIETY OF LONDON. 37 



has in all respects been one of the best students I have ever had 

 under my charge, and will yet distinguish himself as a botanist.'' 

 In a clerical cajDacity he was first licensee in Edinburgh in the 

 Established Church of Scotland in 1858, and was ordained a minister 

 of that communion in 1862, His first essay in natural history was 

 his small volume, ' Braemar, its Topography and Natural History,' 

 Aberdeen, 1861, Svo. This was written during his probation at 

 Castleton ; later he was stationed at North Leith, before he 

 came to London as assistant to Dr, John Gumming. He had a 

 ministerial charge at Swallow Street, Piccadilly ; and on its sale, 

 served for many years as an acting -chaplain to the forces at 

 Aldershot. 



In spite of these claims upon his time he managed to engage in 

 botanic work, especially devoting himself to lichenology, in whicli 

 branch he published his first paper in the ' Journal of Botany ' for 

 1869, in three parts, entitled "New British Lichens," many of whicli 

 were described from his own collecting. He was at this time an 

 indefatigable pedestrian, and would even pass the night among the 

 heather, in order to get at plants he wanted ; thongh most averse to 

 trade collectors, with whom he sometimes had warm disputes in 

 the wilder districts. In the next year he brought out a manual 

 for British lichenologists, namely, ' Lichenes britannici, sen 

 lichenum in Anglia, Scotia et Hibernia vigentium enumeratio,' 

 Londini, 1870. Erom this time onward to 1893 Crombie pub- 

 lished many papers on his favourite study, in which he ranged 

 himself with Nylander, and against the symbiotic nature of the 

 lichen. He described many novelties from the Arctic and Ant- 

 arctic regions, and investigated de novo the lichens of Dillenius 

 and of Withering. Eor the Trustees of the British Museum he 

 undertook an enumeration of the British Lichens in the Depart- 

 ment of Botanj', of which the fii"st volume came out in 1894 as 

 ' A Monograph of the Lichens found in Britain,' &c., but the 

 second volume was not completed in the author's lifetime. He 

 •was elected a Eellow of the Liunean Society, 6th May, 1868, and 

 served on the Council from 1879 to 1882 ; in 1879 also he became 

 Lecturer on Botany at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School till 

 1891. Shortly after his retirement from this lectureship he 

 removed to Ewhurst, Surrey, and there quietly lived till his death 

 on 12th May, 1906. 



His herbarium is now at the British Museum (Natural History). 



[B. D. J.] 



The Right Hon. Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff, 

 G.C.S.I., was the son of James Cunningham Grant Duff, the 

 author of the ' History of the Mahrattas,' and Jane Catherine, 

 the only child of Sir Whitelaw Ainslie, author of the ' Materia 

 Medica of Hindostan,' published at Madras in 1813, and recast in 

 two volumes, London, 1826. He was born at Eden, Aberdeen- 

 shire, 21st February, 1829, received his education successively at 



