202 THE JOURNAL OP BOTANY 



while complimenting him on his composition, objected to one 

 word in it as incorrect, and was met by the rejoinder, " I got it 

 from yom^ Lexicon, Sir." It is characteristic of Ley that no 

 mention of these University honours is to be found in " Crock- 

 ford." 



After his ordination in 1867, and his four years' curacy at 

 Buxton, he returned home to help his father in the care of his two 

 Herefordshire parishes, which, with their two churches and 

 distinct populations, could not be satisfactorily worked without 

 the assistance of a permanent curate. It was probably during 

 the seven years he then spent under his father's roof, as assistant 

 curate, that he began his systematic exploration of the county, 

 preparatory to the publication of the Flora of Herefordshire 

 twenty-two years later. In his brief memoir of the Eev. W. H. 

 Purchas, his colleague in that work (written for this Journal in 

 1904, pp. 80-82), he has told us how Mr. Purchas, some years 

 before this, had mapped out the county into fourteen districts, 

 and set to work energetically to investigate the distribution of its 

 flora. But in 1870 Mr. Purchas had removed into Staffordshire, 

 and from that year ceased altogether to reside in Herefordshire ; 

 so that Ley's most constant work in the field must have been 

 done apart from his colleague. Though it was not until 1889 

 that the Flora was published, it may be convenient to mention here 

 that in its " Preface" will be found a full account of the progress 

 of the work, as it grew under the hands of its authors. 



A short note of his, on the occurrence of Alyssum incanum in a 

 field near Boss, is to be found in the 1871 volume of this Journal ; 

 and in an 1872-1874 list of members of the Botanical Exchange 

 Club I find his name with my own. His contributions to this 

 club (sometimes eight hundred or nine hundred sheets in one year), 

 exceeded those of any other member, and testify to his extra- 

 ordinary capacity for enduring fatigue in collecting and drying his 

 collections, all the more remarkable when we remember how 

 active a member he was also of the Watson Exchange Club. But 

 it appears that his unceasing work at the Flora did not leave him 

 much time for other botanical writing, as it is not ur^til 1887 that 

 his frequent contributions to this Journal begin. From that date 

 onwards, however, up to the closing number of last year's volume, 

 these contributions are of frequent occurrence and great interest, 

 as may be seen by a reference to each year's Index. 



It was in 1878 that the great sorrow of Ley's life overtook him 

 in the death of his wife, after they had been married barely three 

 months. From that year to 1885 he held his first incumbency, in 

 the remote parish of St. Weonard's, half-way between Hereford 

 and Monmouth. This he resigned at the latter date, in conse- 

 quence of his father's marked failure in health, and returning 

 once more to his old home as his father's assistant curate, he held 

 that post again for two years, till his father's death, when he 

 succeeded him as vicar, and with the help of a curate for Sundays, 

 worked the two parishes for a further period of twenty-one 

 years. 



