OBITUARY. 119 



OBITUARY. 



Professor J. VV. H. Trail, M.A., M.D., F.R.S. 



We regret to record the death of Professor Trail, of the 

 Regius Chair of Botany in the University of Aberdeen, which 

 took place on the 18th of September 19 19, after an illness of 

 about three weeks' duration. 



Professor Trail was born at Birsay, Orkney, on the 4th March 

 185 1, and was the youngest son of the late Very Rev. Samuel 

 Trail, D.D., LL.D., who was Professor of Systematic Theology 

 in the University of Aberdeen from 1867 till 1887, and 

 Moderator of the Church of Scotland in 1874. Professor Trail 

 had a distinguished career at the University, taking his M.A. 

 degree with highest honours in Natural Science in 1870, and 

 M.B., CM., with highest honours in 1876. In 1873, before he 

 had completed his medical studies, he was appointed Naturalist 

 to an exploring expedition in Northern Brazil, having even at 

 that early period come to be regarded as a botanist and 

 entomologist whose future was full of promise. On his 

 return to Aberdeen in 1875, he resumed his studies at the 

 University, graduating in medicine the following year. In 

 1879 he was appointed Professor of Botany in succession to 

 the late Professor Dickie, at the comparatively early age 

 of 26 years. He held this appointment up to the date of his 

 death, his occupancy of the Chair extending over a period of 

 42 years. He was the senior member of the Senatus of the 

 University. 



His travels in Brazil provided Dr Trail with excellent 

 opportunities of studying vegetable and animal life in the 

 tropical forests of that region, and the results of some of his 

 researches on the palms were published in a series of papers 

 in the Journal of Botany. His knowledge of botany was 

 extremely wide and thorough. He was regarded as an authority 

 of the first rank on the fungoid diseases and insect pests that 

 attack forest trees, while much of his work on held botany 

 was of importance to students of forestry, because of its 

 bearing on forest ecology. His familiarity with the country 

 districts of Aberdeenshire, in conjunction with his biological 

 studies, in course of time naturally led him to take an interest 

 in aspects of forestry other than those with which he was 



