64 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



])ast it had bi'en remarkably full of achievement. Only 44 years 

 of age, we can liardly forecast what (xwyiine-VaLigliau might yet 

 have done if he had lived out the full span. 



But he was not merely a laboratory Botanist. He had an acute 

 sense of specific characters, and a good knowledge of the native 

 Flora in tiie field. His systematic analysis of difficult species 

 of Algte was pertinacious and successful. And equally in the 

 determination of Ferns, his systematic powers were exercised 

 upon the collection brought back by Professor Lang from a 

 journey in the Eastern Tropics. He was also an extensive 

 traveller himself. In 1897 he went up the Amazon and Purus 

 rivers some 3500 miles, as botanist attached to a rubber- 

 prospecting expedition ; but his scientific pi'oclivities were 

 restricted by the jealous demands of the firm that employed him. 

 In 1899 he joined the Skeat Expedition to the Malay Peninsula, 

 and experienced the delights of forest life with attendant Malays, 

 on the borders of Siam. But perhaps owing to his own delicate 

 sense of duty to the expedition he was with, he made no private 

 collection for tiie purpose of futiu'e work. It is, however, an 

 interesting fact that some of the plants which he collected for the 

 Skeat Expedition were among the last of the new species deter- 

 mined by the veteran, Sir Joseph Hooker. In 1909 he attended 

 the British Association Meeting at Winnipeg, making the ac- 

 quaintance of Canadian Forests and Lakes. Thus as a traveller 

 he had touched three of the great geographical areas of the 

 M'orld. 



We have traced Gwynne-Vaughan to Glasgow, where he 

 worked from 1896 to 1907, as assistant, and later as Lecturer in 

 Queen Margaret College. In 1902 he co-operated with Professor 

 Bower in producing the Second Edition of " Practical Botany for 

 Beginners" (Macmillan & Co.), which has gone through several 

 reprints. In 1907 he was appointed head of the Botanical 

 Department at Birkbeck College, London, and for two years he 

 toiled in formulating elementary and advanced lectures covering 

 the whole area of the Science. In 1909 he received the appoint- 

 ment of Professor in Queen's University, Belfast. In 1911 he 

 married Dr. II. C I. Eraser, herself an accomplished Botanist, 

 \\ ho had succeeded him in the post at Birkbeck College. He was 

 finally transferred from Belfast in 1914 to the Chair of Botany 

 in University College, Reading But he lived only to complete 

 one full year of duty there. His health had latterly not been 

 good, though he bravely continued his work to the end. He may 

 be said to have run in harness till within two months of his 

 death. 



His appreciation among Botanists has been quite general. All 

 felt the sincerity, the acuteness, the scrupulous care that charac- 

 terised his work. An outspoken critic, he was always ready to 

 help with suggestions and with facts, of which he had an un- 

 (■omracm store laid by in very carefully tabulated notes. He 

 lecaine personally known to the general body of British Botanists 



