Professor G. S. Bladie. 283 



which was indeed very remarkable ; and his high spirits 

 and good humour made it a time of unmixed enjoyment. 

 He deserves any credit that was due to the " Account of 

 a Botanical Tour in Switzerland in 1853." Shortly after- 

 wards Dr Blackie was made Curator of the Botanical 

 Museum in succession to his friend Dr Thomas Anderson, 

 afterwards of Calcutta, 



The chief part of Dr Blackie's life was spent in America. 

 He went there in 1856, and was appointed almost imme- 

 diately Professor of Botany and Materia Medica in the 

 University of Nashville, Tennessee. He held this appoint- 

 ment until the occurrence of the American Civil War, in 

 which he took the side of his adopted city. This rendered 

 all scientific work for the time impossible, and he suffered 

 much in health after the war was over from the hardships 

 which he had undergone. He was, however, able to do 

 much useful work in various capacities during the remainder 

 -of his life, and, though obliged latterly to relinquish some 

 of his occupations, he remained till the time of his death 

 Professor of Chemistry in the Nashville Medical School, 

 and one of the Editors of the Soutliern Practitioner. He 

 died on the 19th of June 1881. 



Dr Blackie w^as remarkable all through life for the 

 earnestness with which he pursued any work which he 

 undertook. The enthusiasm with which he devoted him- 

 self to the science which this Society is formed to cultivate, 

 was a conspicuous illustration of this. His earnestness, 

 although it made him a hard worker, did not, however, 

 make him what could be called a plodder. He went to 

 work with a rush of joyous emotion which carried him on 

 in waves. Those who have been with him as his com- 

 panions, will remember how he would break out at intervals 

 into declamation or into song, and then return to his work 

 refreshed and eager. 



But there was more than anything else visible to those 

 who knew him best, a constant flow of pure and generous 

 feeling which characterised his conduct. He was not 

 remarkable for caution and deliberation in forming opinions, 

 and would often have been led wrong had his delicacy of 

 feeling not made him instinctively recoil from any shade 

 of meanness or unrighteousness. 



