150 THE JOURNAL OF BUTAXr 



Promising as were the specimens we examined, being only visible 

 in section, there were curious jDoints of structure, of which we could 

 not make out the significance, as well as problematic organisms which 

 might prove Characeous. Eeid at once decided that the thing to do 

 was to find the same fossils in one of the seams of limestone. 



Early the following year he visited a spot on the hills north of 

 AVeymouth, wliere there is an extensive outcrop of these beds, and 

 there found the Chara-remains in great quantity, not only in chert, 

 but also in limestone. He devised an ingenious plan for dealing with 

 the hitter. By subjecting thin slices to a continuous drip of slightly 

 acidulated water for many hours, he completely etched out the fossils. 

 We were thus enabled to understand some of the things which had 

 puzzled us in the chert sections, and to arrive at important conclusions 

 as regards the structure of these early Characeie. We published a pre- 

 liminary report on the results obtained in the ' Proceedings ' (B Ixxxix, 

 1916) of the Ro3^al Society, from whom we had received a small 

 grant to defray the expenses of slicing and polishing. Meanwhile we 

 had also been working together at the Chara-remains from the Hordle 

 Beds,, and had prepared material and partly completed a paper on 

 them for the Geological Society, an absti-act of which was read before 

 the Society in November last. Reid made a very large number of 

 fine micro-photogmphs of the specimens from the Purbeck and 

 Headon Beds. 



For a great part of his life, he had suffered at times from acute 

 indigestion, and latterly this appears to have seriously affected his 

 heart. When I was at Milford last June it was an effort for him to 

 walk any distance, later on he became rapidly worse, and on the 10th 

 December he passed away. He was buried in Milford Churchyard. 

 His death at the comparative^ earl}^ age of 63 came as a great shock 

 as well as a disa])pointment to his friends. When he retired, 

 apparently in full health and vigour, we all hoped that there were 

 many years of active and useful work before him. 



In 1875 he was elected F.Gr.S. and served on the Council of 

 that Society in 1892-5 and in 1912, being appointed a Vice- 

 President in 1913. In 1886 he was elected F.L.S. and served on the 

 Council of that Society in 1900-2 and 1905-7. In 1899 he was 

 elected F.P.S. He received the award of the Murchison Geological 

 Fund in 1886, the Bigsby Gold Medal in 1897, and the Bolitho Gold 

 Medal of the Poyal Society of Cornwall in 1911. 



The excellent portrait by Messrs. Elliott & Fr}" here reproduced 

 was taken in 1915. 



Among botanists I had perhaps i-ather exceptional opportunities 

 of judging Iveid's personal character. He possessed as it seems to me, 

 in a remarkable degree, just the qualities required for the work he 

 had set himself to do. On the one hand, his patience, his resource- 

 fulness and his untiring energy, qualified him to deal effectively with 

 the vast masses of material from which evidence had to be collected ; 

 while his methodical habit of mind enabled him to piece together the 

 facts and coiTelate and marshal them so as to be available for his 

 yjurpose. On the other hand, he possessed the constructive imagination, 

 more necessary perhaps in geology than in any other science, which 



