OBITUARY NOTICE OF PROF. LAWSON. XXV 
During his residence in Halifax he was always ready to give assist- 
ance to struggling educational institutions. For years he delivered 
courses of lectures in Chemistry and Botany to the students of the 
Halifax Medical College. He was one of the organizers of the Tech- 
nological Institute ; and when that useful evening school ceased to exist 
through lack of funds, he conducted for some years, and intended to 
conduct periodically, an evening class in theoretical and_ practical 
chemistry, especially for men engaged in chemical industries. 
Soon after his coming to Nova Scotia, a Board of Agriculture was 
established by the government, and his previous profound study of 
British agriculture led to his appointment to the secretaryship of the 
Board. He discharged the duties of this office from 1864 to 1885, 
when the functions of the Board were assumed directly by the govern- 
ment, and he was appointed Secretary for Agriculture. His connection 
with agriculture was rendered still more intimate from the fact that he 
for many years himself conducted a farm, largely, I believe, a stock 
farm, at Sackville, N.S. Whether intended to be so or not, it was 
generally regarded as a model of what such a farm ought to be. 
Shortly after his appointment to the Professorship in Dalhousie 
College, Prof. Lawson became a member of this Institute, and he soon 
became one of our most active members. He attended our meetings 
with the greatest regularity, and was always ready to give freely of his 
time and energy with the object of promoting the interests of the 
Society. His executive ability was early recognized, and he was elected 
a member of the Council in 1864. Since that date there have been but 
five years in which he was not so selected. He was Vice-President on 
nine occasions, and has held the office ‘of President during the last two 
years. 
During his membership he communicated in all fifteen papers to the 
Institute, including five which are as yet unpublished, and which, I 
fear, have not been finally prepared for publication. These papers are, 
for the most part, in the department of Botany, which, as our members 
know well, was his favorite subject. I may mention his ‘‘ Monograph 
of the Ranunculacee of the Dominion of Canada,” the paper ‘‘ On the 
Laminariacez of the Dominion,” the “ Monograph of the Ericacez of the 
Dominion,” and the papers ‘On Canadian Species of Rubi,” “On the 
Northern Limit of Wild Grape Vines,” and “ On the Canadian Species 
of the Genus Melilotus,” as being especially important contributions to 
