July, 1904. 1 ^ |^,j.g 



|Ln piemortam* 



ROBERT McLACHLAN. 



Eobert McLachlan, the last Acting Editor of the First Editorial 

 Staff of this Magazine, died in his G7th year on the 23rd of Ma}' at 

 Lewisham, and was buried on the 2Stli in the Tower Hamlets Cemetery, 

 E.C. Born near OnL;ar in Essex, a liking for Butterflies in childhood 

 impelled him to study botany as a means of ascertaining food-plants 

 of larvae : and when the local flora failed as a source of novelties for 

 his herbarium, handsful of foreign hay snatched from passing waggons 

 in town, or obtained from packing cases, were ransacked carefully 

 for exotic grasses. The botanical skill thus acquired was turned to 

 account when (a lad of 18 years) he went on a voyage to Australia 

 and China. He brought back a large collection of Australian plants : 

 the difficulty was to get them named. Assuming that the Keeper of 

 the Botanical Department of the British Museum would be a man 

 likely to know something about them, he conveyed the precious 

 bundles to Bloomsbury, and asked the famous botanist Robert Brown 

 (w^ho held that post) to name the specimens. Mr. Brown good- 

 naturedly complied with the request, devoting a considerable time to 

 the work of identification : and then when all was finished, he pro- 

 ceeded kindly to point out to his visitor, that a public official should 

 not be asked to occupy official hours with private business ! 



Besides Robert Brown, the late John Van Voorst, of Paternoster 

 Row, took a prominent part in introducing young McLachlan into 

 scientific coteries ; and it was probably owing to Van Voorst that 

 he reverted from botany to the pursuit of entomology. Association 

 with Stainton and other specialists of the period when Coombe 

 Wood and Darenth Wood were cited more frequently than now as 

 localities for rarities had, doubtless, much also to do in determining 

 his bent, since for several years Lepidoptern and some other Orders 

 (not Diptera nor Coleopiera) received his attention ; for those were 

 the days when General Collecting was much in vogue. This gave him 



