36 PHOCEBDINQS OF THE 



retirement from the cliair. The writer remembers overtaking 

 Dr. Braithwaite when both of us were going to Burlington House, 

 and his statement that nothing would happen that evening, 

 5th February, 1874, as the President had decided not to allow the 

 disputed matter of the alteration of the Bye-laws to be reopened ; 

 matters, as is well known, fell out differently to that forecast. 

 The second time was from 1889 to 1892, when he was a Vice- 

 President during those three years. He joined the Royal Micro- 

 scopical Society in 1866 and served as its President in 1892-3, 

 his address being on " The Anatomy of Mosses." Other Natural 

 History Societies which owed much to his active support were 

 the Quekett Microscopical Club from 1865, as President 1872 and 

 1873 ; the Ray Society, and the South London Microscopical and 

 Natural History Club, President 1873-75. Another Presidential 

 Address was that given at York to the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union in 1895 upon " The Study of Mosses." 



The two works upon which his reputation will rest were his 

 ' Sphagnacese of Europe and North America ' (London, 1880) and 

 his still more important production, ' The British Moss-Plora,' 

 which took him from 1880 to 1905 to complete, all the drawings 

 being made by him for the litliographer to copy. This was 

 finished six years after he had retired from medical practice in 1899, 

 after the death of his wife. From Clapham he moved to Endymion 

 Road, Brixton, where he delighted to receive visits from old 

 friends who knew him in the palmy days before waning health 

 and failing eyesight forbade close study of his beloved mosses. 

 His herbarium is now in the Botanical Department of the Natural 

 History Museum, Cromwell Road, and most of his books were 

 disposed of before his death on the 20th October, 1917. 



Those who cori'esponded or met with Dr. Braithwaite will not 

 forget his ready help and kindness, especially to beginners. He 

 has been described as not a great field-botanist, nor was he one, as 

 a gatherer and distributer of large numbers of specimens, ticketed 

 and numbered in series, but he enjoyed his trips to the Scottish 

 Highlands and the one voyage to Norway, with its grounding of 

 the ' Chimborazo ' at niglit off the Norwegian coast. An eminent 

 bryologist has dwelt upon Dr. Braithwaite's artistic preparation 

 of specimens and his little regard or liking for varieties, a fact 

 which may be due to his early training, when fine splitting in 

 cryptogams especially was deprecated. 



The Library has to thank our late Fellow for a splendidly 

 bound copy of his * British Moss-Flora,' his own especial copy, 

 and for Schimper's ' Bryologia europaea ' in 6 vols., 1836-55, 

 which, by his desire, were both set aside for our library. We also 

 owe to the kindness of Mr. H. N. Dixon that copy described by 

 him in the 'Journal of ]?otany,' Ivi. (1918) 24, of Schimper's 

 folio, ' Versuch einer Entwickelungs-Geschichte der Torfmoose,' 

 1858, interleaved, with an English translation by our late Fellow 

 facing each page of the original. 



