Hv. THE FLORA OF HALIFAX. 



a new edition was published in 1830. The first edition appears 

 to be now much scarcer than his botanical books, though these 

 fetch a good price. The copy at Todmorden is marked on the 

 fly-leaf in pencil, ' £7 7s.' ; and again ' £1 15s. scarce.' 



The chronicle of Bolton's activities ceases with the year 

 1796 and, as mentioned above, he died in 1799, but there are 



other remains of these productive years. 

 Botanical Several sets of his drawings are in the British 



Drawings. Museum (Natural History), and I am indebted 



to Mr. B. W. Woodward of the Museum for 

 the following particulars of them, (i.) " Original drawings to 

 Bolton's History of Ferns pts. 1 and 2," except those for 

 plates 5, 9, 12, 25, 32, 42, 45, and 46. The first nine are in 

 colour, the rest in Indian-ink (?). They were formerly part of 

 Sir Joseph Banks' Library, (ii.) Twenty-four drawings in 

 colour of Fungi from the neighbourhood of Halifax, executed 

 1788-94. None of these were reproduced in his History of 

 Fungusses, but some may have been used as bases for the 

 figures, (iii.) " Fifty Flowers drawn from Nature at Halifax 

 by James Bolton, A.D., 1785, 86 and 87." All drawings in 

 Indian-ink (?) of cultivated plants. The work bears on the 

 fly-leaf " Wm. Home, F.G.S., Leyburn, Yorkshire, 1894." 

 Mr. Home, who sold the "Fifty Flowers' to the British 

 Museum, says that it was presented by Bolton to his patron, 

 the Earl of Gainsborough. The medium employed for the 

 drawings he thinks is sepia. Mr. Horne still retains a set of 

 sixteen water-colour drawings of flowers, both cultivated and 

 wild, and there are, I believe, a few others in existence. 



Such is the tale of Bolton's life work, pieced together from 

 many sources. Self-taught, versatile, a marvel of industry and 

 patience ; his work stands well the test of time, unmarred by 

 haste or inaccuracy : not absolutely free from error — how 

 could it be ? — it justifies the unstinted admiration of us who 

 reap what he has sown. 



The memory of Roberts Leyland is preserved by his 

 Herbarium of British Plants, now deposited in the Belle Vue 



Museum, Halifax. The son of William 

 Roberts Leyland, he was born in 1784, and from his 



Leyland. boyhood he was deeply interested in botany, 



and was an enthusiastic collector. He was a 

 member of a respected Halifax family, and of the firm of 

 Leyland & Son, Printers. He married a daughter of Joseph 

 Bentley, of Well Head, and his sons, J. B. Leyland and F. A. 



