@Ohe Biresidenis 
OF THE 
Lincolnshire D)aturalists’ Olnion., 
THE 
REY. ALFRED THORNLEY, M.A., 
FibeSy FE. Sy: dc. 
7a59 HERE suddenly appeared at an early Union meeting 
WA, “a little gentleman with a big sweeping net, who 
wanted to know what everybody was collecting, and 
to learn the scientific names of everything from 
plants to the smallest insects.” ‘He had the 
memory, too, to carry them all.’’ We were asked his name 
several times that day, and at first had to plead ignorance. 
Later we discovered a friend, and “what a jewel of a worker 
had been added to our numbers.” As soon as he joined us 
he became one of our most sincere students of nature, and 
most indefatigable recorders. No day was too long, years 
ago; no method of study too restricted if it led to increased 
accuracy; though at times the evenings and nights were all too 
short to get the results worked out. Well do we still 
remember a day together at Newton Cliff, when the dried 
‘“‘warp” of the Trent bed gave the Coleopterist a rare 
beetle; so like a common one that it took us half an hour | 
to sort them out for Dr. W. W. Fowler’s critical inspec- 
tion. It was on that day that sweeping each plant separately 
for insects was first started, with most surprising and satis- 
factory results. Since then. we have moved on to taking 
the insects directly from the flowers they visit in glass tubes. 
The idea, however, is still the old one; the right and only 
truly scientific one, when an accurate note is made on the spot 
at the same time. 
