14G THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



rounded theory which refused to have regard to adverse facts, and his 

 natural truthfulness of mind compelled hira to state discrepancies 

 rather than ignore them, in the hope that wider knoAvledge might 

 reconcile seeming contradictions." 



In an appreciative notice in the Geolofjical Magazine for January, 

 his friend and former colleague Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., traces his 

 official career. He tells us that Reid w^as in the first instance stationed 

 in the south-west of England, bvit was soon afterwards transferred to 

 the Eastern counties, where he remained for some years. It was 

 during this period that the exploration of the Cromer Forest Bed, 

 with its wealth of vegetable remains, led him to take up the principal 

 study of his life — the indications afforded b}' fossil plants of the 

 changes in the climate and physical configuration of our country 

 during more recent geological times. His first paper appears to have 

 been that contributed to the Geological Magazine in 1877 on 

 '' Modern denudation in Norfolk." From that time forward, Reid's 

 contributions to Geology and recent ])al?eo-botany were continuous. 

 Some idea of his extraordinary intellectual activity may be gained 

 from the fact that the published notes, papers and books either 

 written by himself, or to which he made important contributions, 

 total up to considerably over a hundred. The most important of those 

 dealing with the botanical side of his work only, can be refeiTcd to 

 here. 



In 1880 he wrote a paper on the Glacial deposits of Cromer*, but in 

 this only two plants are mentioned. Tliis was followed in 1882 by 

 his " Geology of the Country around Cromer " f, which contained a 

 list of 88 plants, in 1884- by a pa]x?r on " Recent additions to the 

 Fauna and Flora of the Cromer Forest Bed';]:, and in 1886 by a 

 general paper on that Flora § in which the total w^as brought up to 

 fifty-five species. In 1888 in conjunction with Mr. H. N. Ridley he 

 gave an account of the " Fossil Arctic plants from the lacustrine 

 dei)osit at Hoxne in Suffolk " ||. In the same year he contributed his 

 fii*st general paper on the fossil flora of this country, entitled "Notes on 

 the Geological History of the Recent Flora of Britain " ^ in which 

 120 species were referred to. His memoir in 1890 on "The Pliocene 

 Deposits of Hritain " ** added to the number. 



In 1S92 he published his very interesting little paper "On the 

 natural history of isolated ponds" ff dealing mainly with the 

 problems of distribution and the causes of dispei*sal, which had always 

 a great fascination for him. 



In the same year he jniblished ]iapers on " Fossil Arctic plants 

 found near Edinburgh " 'lX-> " ^^" ^^^^ Climate of Europe during the 

 Glacial epoch " §§, and "On the Pleistocene de}X)sits of the Sussex 

 Coast and their equivalents in other districts " ||||. In the last- 

 mentioned ])aper he discussed the evidence in favour of there having 



* Geolog. Mag-. II. vii. p. 55. f Mem. Geolog. Survey. 



X Trans. Norfolk & Norwich Nat. Soc. iii. p. 631. § Ibid. iv. p. 189. 



11 Geolog. Mag. III. r. p. 441. ^ AnnalR of Botany, ii. p. 177. 

 ** Mem. Geolog. Survey. ff Trans. Norf. & Norw. Nat. Soc. v. p. 272. 



ZX I^ep- Brit. Assoc, p. 716. §§ Nat. Science, i. p. 427. 



Ijjl Quart. Journ. Geolog. Soc. xlviii. p. 344. 



