JOHN WHITEHEAD. 89 



canthiim culcarato-aculeatum Hieronymus in Eugler, Pfiunzenwelt 

 Ost-Afrika, Theil C, 20 (1895) ), desoribed from the opposite side of 

 the African continent at about the same latitude. 

 (To be continued.) 



JOHN WHITEHEAD. 



We have to deplore the loss of another of the working-men 

 botanists who have conti^ibuted so much to the knowledge of our 

 flora, mainly those of Lancashire and Cheshire — the two counties 

 the manufacturing centres of which have been especially productive 

 of this class of men. Perhaps we are wrong in supposing that the 

 class is becoming extinct, for such men are usually content to work 

 away quietly by themselves, or in company with a few congenial 

 spirits of their own station of life, until some accident brings them 

 into contact with more prominent workers in science. But in any 

 case it is well to put on permanent record the trials and achieve- 

 ments of such men. Kichard Buxton's autobiographical sketch 

 prefixed to his Botanical Guide to Manchester plants is full of 

 information regarding his contemporaries and himself ; John 

 Whitehead, who passed away at Oldham on May Gth, 1890, was 

 a man of the same stamp, and some sketch of his career can 

 hardly be uninteresting to the readers of this Journal. 



John Whitehead was born in 1833 at Dukinfield, Cheshire, and 

 lived there for the greater part of his life. He was employed in a 

 cotton mill, and used to tell how, when Wilson came to see him 

 about mosses, he was directed to the mill, where he found White- 

 head in that state of "undress" which is usual in those warm 

 regions. Mosses were his particular hobby, and his eye-knowledge 

 of them was remarkable. We do not know at what period he took 

 up the subject, but in 1862, writing to ask Wilson's help in naming 

 a collection of mosses which had come from Australia as packing, 

 he says he is "deeply engaged" in the study. 



This was the year of the Lancashire cotton famine, and White- 

 head and his fellow botanists were among the sufferers. The editors 

 of the Journal of Horticulture suggested that something might be 

 done by the sale of specimens, and the appeal which was issued on 

 behalf of these men contains the following reference to Whitehead : 

 " Whitehead has earned about four shillings per week for a long 

 time, out of which, with some little savings, he had to keep his 

 mother and two sisters. His stock is done, and now he has bfeen 

 compelled to apply for [parish] relief. He is, without exception, 

 the best muscologist we have in this district, and a very steady man. 

 He is prevented from following out his researches, although he has 



j)lenty of time on hand, through want of a little help [He] 



told me he had been out last week collecting, and his shoes being 

 done he got wet feet."* Whitehead's specimens were put on sale 

 at a guinea per hundred, or three shillings per dozen. 



' Journal of Horticulture, Oct. 26, 1862, p. 585. 



