INTROI) UCTION. xxi 



Dr. Dickie was essentially a Field Naturalist, always delighted when 

 able to add something to oiir knowledge of Creative Wisdom. Marine 

 Zoology obtained a considerable share of his attention, but it is as a 

 botanist that he will hereafter be knowTi. To cryptogamic botany he was 

 specially devoted, and he became a leading authority on the seaweeds. 

 The Challenger collections of Algse were submitted to him for revision, 

 and he was engaged at these up to the time of his last iUness. 



Dr. Dickie's principal works are : — Flora of Aberdeen, 1838. Bota- 

 nists' Guide to the Counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Kincardine, 1864. 

 Flora of Ulster, 1864. He also contributed several chapters to Dr. 

 M' Cosh's Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation, and he wrote the 

 botanical appendix to Macgillivray's Natural History of Braemar and 

 Deeside. Numerous articles from his pen appeared in the Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural History, tbe Journal of Botany, etc., and many 

 papers were contributed by him to the Transactions of the Edinburgh 

 Botanical Society, the Linnean Society, and the British Association. 

 Dr. Dickie was an Honorary Fellow of the Edinburgh Botanical Society, 

 a member of the Societe des Sciences Naturelles de Cherbourg, and during 

 his residence in Ireland an active member, and for some time Vice- 

 President, of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. 

 While living here he took great interest in the newly discovered art of 

 photography, and was one of the earliest amateur photographers in^ Bel- 

 fast. He took photos of several leading members of the Natural History 

 Society, and was as fairly successful as the knowledge of the art at that 

 time permitted. 



Pkofessor Ralph Tatb, F.G.S., F.L.S. 



Is one of an English north- country family, several of whose members 

 have distinguished themselves as naturalists. He received his scientific 

 education at the School of Mines, London, and having been a successful 

 teacher of science in Bristol, he was commissioned to establish and lectuare 

 to science classes in Belfast. These classes were conducted in the Museum, 

 and under a teacher so able and so profound were most successful. The 

 subjects taught were Geology, Mineralogy, Zoology, Animal Physiology, 

 Systematic Botany, Vegetable Physiology, and Chemistry. Not only was 

 good progress made in scientific knowledge, but the teacher succeeded in 

 embuing many of his pupils with some degree of his own entliusiasm. 

 The Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, established by Mr. Tate in conjunction 

 with a number of his pupils, was the direct outcome of his work, and the 

 numerous local researches subsequently carried on by the Club are thus 

 the indirect results of his teaching. In acknowledgment of services to 

 the cause of Natural Science in BeKast, he was elected an Honorary 

 Associate of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. 



After leaving Belfast, Mr. Tate was for some years employed as Mining 

 Engineer in (central America, and while there made collections of plants 

 and shells. His bundles of dried plants were, however, so much injured 

 by excessive heat and moisture as to become worthless. He was more 



