AUGUSTIN LEY 203 



Not by one only of my correspondents has it been said of him, 

 in almost identical terms, that " next to his duty as a parish priest, 

 which always held the first place, his life's interest was found in 

 botany." Eight zealously, certainly, and most unselfishly did he 

 devote himself to his work in the ministry ; but none to whom he 

 was at all intimately known could doubt that that work was all 

 the better done for the unfailing recreation which he derived 

 from his botanical pursuits. His keenness and thoroughness in 

 botanical research — alike in the field and in the study — were 

 indeed most remarkable. As the Eev. E. F. Linton writes of him ; 

 " an all-round British botanist, he took chief interest in the more 

 difficult genera, and spent an immense amount of labour in 

 collecting material, and working out species and varieties new to 

 Britain and to science. In the genus Bosa, he revised the mollis- 

 tomentosa group, a revision which was embedded in the last 

 edition of the London Catalogue of British Plants. In Hieracium 

 he was a large contributor to the later fascicles of the set of 

 British Hieracia, and he continued to work at the genus to the 

 end. The list in the London Catalogue, ed. 10, shows that he 

 was responsible for five species endemic to the British Isles ; and 

 since its issue he has given specific rank to seven more — some of 

 them previously described as varieties. An important paper on 

 the comparative distribution of Hawkweeds in the counties of 

 Brecon and Yorkshire appeared from his pen in this Journal for 

 1909, pp. 8 and 47. This he proposed to follow up with a more 

 general paper on their distribution in the British Isles [in con- 

 junction with Mr. Linton] — and his latest work in this direction 

 was the preparation of his part of the proposed paper, which he 

 posted to his colleague shortly before his death. His unexpected 

 removal from us is a grievous and irreparable loss to all who 

 worked with him on this intricate genus. In his knowledge of 

 the Welsh Hawkweeds and on some sections of the genus his 

 opinion was invaluable. Another difficult genus that he knew 

 in the field better than any other British botanist was Ulmus. 

 The result of his work is given in this Journal for 1910, 

 p. 65 ; and though some revision in the nomenclature may 

 occur in the future, there is no doubt that he knew the 

 British forms well, and that his distinctions will stand." 



Mr. Linton also refers to "his unfailing courtesy and good 

 temper in any argument or difference of opinion, his thoughtful- 

 ness for others, and his industrious and persevering method in 

 carrying out laborious investigations." 



In lluhus for the last twenty years Ley has been my inde- 

 fatigable and most helpful fellow-worker. No county in Great 

 Britain or Ireland can have been nearly so well explored for its 

 brambles as Herefordshire has been hy him, with the remarkable 

 result that it is now known to contain 136 out of the 191 forms 

 with wliich the British Isles are at present credited ; and with 

 the distribution of most of them already ascertained. Of these 

 136 forms (83 species and 53 varieties), eleven (species and varieties) 

 are new to science and were published by him in this Journal 



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