OF JOHN EDDOWES BOWMAN, ESQ. 65 
years. The introduction of the yew into church- 
yards he ascribed to a sentiment of heathen su- 
perstition, which regarded it as an emblem of im- 
mortality, and which was afterwards, from conces- 
sion to these natural feelings, adopted by Chris- 
tianity. In this part of the paper we are reminded 
of his early fondness for antiquarian lore. 
In the summer of 1836, he discovered near 
Ellesmere, and minutely described, a species of 
parasite, growing exclusively on flax, which Sir 
W. Hooker, on specimens being forwarded to him, 
considered to be a species not before noticed in 
Britain.* An account of this plant, with some 
remarks on the general growth of parasites, was 
read by Mr. Bowman, at the Meeting of the 
British Association in Birmingham, in August 
1839; and afterwards, in an enlarged form, before 
the Literary and Philosophical Society of Man- 
chester, Nov. 12, 1839. 
The subject to which Mr. Bowman devoted his 
attention almost exclusively during the last years 
of his life, was geology ; and in his papers on this 
branch of scientific research, we perceive the as- 
sistance he derived from his early familiarity with 
* On a new British Species of Cuscuta, and on some pecu- 
liarities in the structure of the Genus as Parasites. 
K 
