HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. hii. 



ists in Humble Life," by James Cash (1873). Geology, 

 entomology, conchology, all claimed his attention as well as 

 botany. He furnished geological material to Prof. Phillips, 

 who named a new species after him Goniatites Gibsoni ; and his 

 collection of fossils, which was shown at the Manchester 

 meeting of the British Association in 1842, was purchased for 

 the Manchester Museum, and is now at Owens College. His 

 collection of insects was sold after his death for ^"45 after being 

 snapped up for as many shillings. 



In botany he contributed largely to the literature of his 

 time, especially on questions relating to the hawkweeds 

 sedges, and ferns. " To Mr. S. Gibson, of Hebden Bridge," 

 writes Baines in the preface to his Flora of Yorkshire, " the 

 Catalogue is under great obligations, not only for the free 

 communications of his discoveries, especially in Cryptogamic 

 Botany, but also for his attention to the general completeness 

 of the Work." Edward Newman in his History of British 

 Ferns frequently mentions the receipt of varieties from Gibson. 

 But it is in the first volume of the ' Phytologist,' 

 1841-1844, that Gibson is most in evidence, almost 

 every number containing some note, enquiry or paper 

 by him, or a controversial discussion of his discoveries. Some 

 of his conclusions have not been accepted, but there remain 

 his variety spinosa of Sagina pvocumbens, and the variety pvostvata 

 (Bab.) of 5. apetala, both found by him about Halifax. Gibson 

 was also the first to find Hievacium hypochcsvoides, as he named 

 it, or what Backhouse called Hievacium Gibsoni, at Malham, 

 and a variety of Cavex Goodenowii, which Babington named 

 Gibsoni, at Hebden Bridge. His Cavex pseudo-pavadoxa, which 

 involved him in a bitter controversy, is now known as 

 C. tevetiuscida, var. Ehvhavtiana, whilst Newman adopted his 

 name nudum for a variety of Equisetum palustve supplied by him. 



Gibson left large botanical collections. Some appear to be 

 lost now, but the Royal Museum, Peel Park, Salford, contains 

 his collection of seeds and seed-vessels of British and Foreign 

 plants, mounted between glass slips for examination under the 

 microscope. His herbarium of British flowering plants, said 

 to have been valued at ^"75, was purchased after his death by 

 Mr. Mark Philips, M.P. for Manchester. I was fortunate 

 enough a few years ago to trace it to the possession of his 

 daughter, Lady Trevelyan, of Welcombe, Stratford-on-Avon, 

 and shortly afterwards, Lady Trevelyan, acting on my 

 suggestion, presented it to the Halifax Corporation, and it was 



