190 TKANSACTIONS OF THE [Sess. lxxxvii 



to accuracy and detail which marked every piece of work 

 Mr. Evans performed. 



About the age of sixteen or seventeen he was still at Edin- 

 burgh Institution, walking there every day from his uncle's 

 farm, where he was residing at the time. He left school to 

 join the Scottish Widows' Fund, and it was at the commence- 

 ment of this professional career that he attended Professor 

 John Hutton Balfour's botany class which met at the Botanic 

 Garden at 8 a.m. The waUc from Buckstone had to be accom- 

 plished before that early hour of meeting, and work in the 

 laboratory was followed by professional duties in the office. 

 Long walks became so much a habit in Evans' young life that 

 after leaving Buckstone to take up residence in Edinburgh, 

 he climbed Arthur's Seat every evening in order that he might 

 feel he had had exercise for the day. Until ill-health com- 

 ])elled him to retire in 1892, Mr. Evans devoted himself whole- 

 heartedly to his actuarial work, becoming a Fellow of the 

 Faculty of Actuaries and publishing several important papers 

 on actuarial science. 



But the naturalist was dominant within him, and from 1880, 

 w^hen he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Physical Society, 

 there appeared from his pen a steady stream of records and 

 observations, all alike stamped with characteristic care and 

 precision. John Hutton Balfour early recognised his worth 

 -and recommended Evans for election as an Associate of the 

 Botanical Society of Edinburgh when he was no more than 

 twenty years of age. That honour remained dear to him ; he 

 preferred it to ordinary membership, even though it debarred 

 him from occupying the ])residential chair which would have 

 been his had the rule allowed. Other honours fell to him. 

 Of the Royal Physical Society he became in turn Secretary, 

 Vice-President, and President. Of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh he was elected a Fellow in 1884, and for many years 

 he shared the duties and responsibilities of editing The Scottish 

 Naturalist, while its forerunner, The Annals of Scottish 

 Natural History, owed much to his constant help and advice. 



The years of retirement made ])Ossible that open-air life 

 which sufficiently restored liis liealtJi to allow the prosecution 

 of those Held studies which lay to his heart. Scottish Natural 

 History has had few more devoted or more enthusiastic 

 students, and few have equalled him in his j)ainstaking search 



