164 Sir R. Christison on the, 



working members at the age of fifty- two. Lindsay's life 

 was really that of a scientific recluse, his lichens and 

 minerals giving needful recreation iu his toilsome and de- 

 pressing ofiScial position. We first remember Lindsay as 

 a High School dux, ardent even when a boy in foreign 

 travel, with an omnivorous appetite for all knowledge. A 

 near relative of that distinguished bibliopole, the " Scottish 

 book-hunter," it could not have been otherwise. But he 

 himself latterly held that the too close application of his 

 boyish and student years did permanent injury to his 

 health, necessitating afterwards frequent long professional 

 vacations of colonial and continental travel. He thought 

 there was wisdom in even the too great rebound to cricket 

 and football, so characteristic of middle-class education 

 now a-days. Mineralogy was Lindsay's first scientific love. 

 It was only when he came under the influence of Professor 

 Balfour's teaching that he entered with equal zest on his 

 botanical career. He was a skilful draughtsman, and 

 characteristically neat handed. The beautiful preparations 

 of the grasses, now iu the museum at the Royal Botanic 

 Garden, gained the prize offered by the Messrs Lawson to 

 the University Botanical Class. And his elaborate and 

 exquisitely illustrated monograph on the " Spermogones and 

 Pycnides of the Higher Licliens," gained the first Neill Prize, 

 in 1859, from the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His ex- 

 tensive lichen collection is to be deposited in the University 

 Herbarium. 



On the Exact Measurement of Trees (Part 5). 1. The 

 Growth of Wood m 1880. 2. The Limit of the Gh'oiv- 

 ing Months. By Sir Robert Christison, Bart. 



(Read 13th January 1881). 



In the last observations submitted to this Society on the 

 exact measurement of trees, I endeavoured to show that in 

 the unfavourable season of 1879 the growth of wood, both 

 of leaf-shedding and evergreen trees, was materially less 

 than in the comparatively favourable season of 1878 ; that 

 the depressing influence of that of 1879 afi'ected various 

 species in very difi'ereut degrees ; that most leaf-shedding 



