Obituary Notices. 9 



1879, in the eighty-second year of his age. He early dis- 

 played a strong love of science, for, even when a boy at 

 Harrow, he would rise early in the summer mornings and 

 go great distances in quest of plants, which often neces- 

 sitated his beating a hasty retreat, that he might be present 

 at prayers at eight o'clock. After leaving Harrow he went 

 to Oxford, and attended the University College, where he 

 was a student in the botanical and geological classes, and 

 took his degree of M.A. in 1820, He then came to Edin- 

 burgh to prosecute still further his scientific studies. He 

 lost no time in practically applying the scientific knowledge 

 thus acquired, for in 1821 he visited the Faroe Islands on 

 a botanical and mineralogical expedition, where he spent 

 some time, and proved himself to be a most close, careful, 

 and accurate observer. He read a paper on the " Vegetation 

 and Temperature of the Faroe Islands" in the Natural 

 History Section of the British Association at Edinburgh, 

 in 1834, and published it in a somewhat extended form in 

 vol. xviii. of the " New Philosophical Journal." This 

 article is very interesting and instructive, giving as it does 

 a brief sketch of the appearance of some of the mountains 

 and their elevations, of the kind of soil which generally 

 prevails, of the climate, w^hich is for the most part mild 

 but damp, and of the temperature which, at Morshavn at 

 least, was found to have a mean of 45'399°. 



He gives a list of some of the plants found on July IS, 

 1821, on the south-east side of the mountain, Mallingsfiall, 

 in the Island of Videroe, and here the careful manner in 

 which he made his observations is shown by such remarks 

 as the following : — At 1088 feet, Salix herhacea (first 

 plant) ; at 1098 feet, Prunella vulgaris (last plant) ; at 1382 

 feet, Dryas octopetala (one plant only), but at 1530 feet, 

 it was frequent. One plant only of Fapaver nudicaule 

 appeared at 1530 feet, but it was of frequent occurrence at 

 1950 feet ; and so on. Here the mention of the particular 

 side of the mountain examined, the date of collecting, the 

 different altitudes at which particular plants first appear 

 and become frequent, &c., prove him to have been at that 

 early period an accurate observer. 



He succeeded his father as Sixth Baronet, on May 23, 

 1846, and greatly improved his extensive landed estates. 



