HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. lv. 



Leyland, Junr., were distinguished, the one as a sculptor, the 

 other as a local historian and antiquarian. To his grandson, 

 Mr. John Leyland, I am indebted for information not other- 

 wise obtainable. 



The Halifax Literary and Philosophical Society was 

 founded in 1830, one of its chief objects being the formation of 

 a Natural History Museum. Roberts Leyland was one of the 

 original members, a trustee, and Curator of Botany, until 

 his death on November 15th, 1847. He was closely con- 

 cerned in the growth of the Society and its Museum, having 

 charge also of the shells, and forming collections of his own in 

 conchology, mineralogy, and ornithology. Many of these 

 went to the Museum at Akroydon, which Colonel Akroyd was 

 instrumental in founding. Some relics are still in the possess- 

 of his grandson, Mr. John Leyland, who also retains some 

 volumes of letters written to him by the botanists with whom 

 he corresponded. He was much interested in the production 

 of Baines' Yorkshire Flora, to which he lent considerable help 

 and which was printed by Leyland & Son. His name also 

 appears, as the authority for various Halifax plants, in the 

 Topographical Botany of H. C. Watson, with whom he made 

 exchanges. 



But it was not till long after Leyland's death that the 

 Museum in Harrison Road became possessed of a good 

 botanical collection. In 1877 King presented his Herbarium, 

 and the next year Col. Akroyd gave the Society the Herbarium 

 formed by Roberts Leyland, and this was supplemented by 

 the gift from F. A. Leyland of many more plants which had 

 originally belonged to his father's collection. The duty of 

 arranging these large collections fell to William Craven, who 

 had been an original member of the Society and had 

 succeeded Leyland in the Curatorship of Botany. This duty 

 was completed by 1881, and the Curator was able to report to 

 the Council of the Literary and Philosophical Society that the 

 Leyland Herbarium contained 2,269 British Flowering Plants 

 and Ferns presented by Col. Akroyd, and 675 by F. A. 

 Leyland ; also 150 British Lichens and 226 British Mosses 

 from Col. Akroyd. Many of the plants are of course 

 duplicates, " which have been retained in the Herbarium on 

 account of the localities from which they are known to have 

 been obtained." The Curator arranged them according to the 

 Natural System, adopting the order of Hooker and Arnott's 

 British Flora, the Herbarium containing specimens of almost 



