HIS HERBARIUM PRESENTED TO A UNIVERSITY. 421 



In examining them, it was found that the moths had done 

 least damage to the plants kept in blotting paper, and 

 slightly more to those in newspapers, but that the 

 destruction was almost total in those preserved in thick 

 grey paper. Tea paper, as used by grocers, John found a 

 very good preservative, and he utilised it in his later collec- 

 tions, which are well laid down. 



The old newspapers that enclosed his early gatherings 

 are interesting memorials of the times in which he began 

 botanising. The Aberdeen Journal frequently appears, 

 from 1839 onwards. Here are some numbers of the 

 Aberdeen Constitutional, obtained from Charles Black, who 

 took it out at Whitehouse, as a Conservative. There is a 

 copy of the Scotsman of 1840, price ^\d. This is a leaf of 

 the Scottish Jurist. That is a fragment of the memorable 

 but fleeting notices of the day, containing a list of the 

 opposers of intrusion in the Formartin district of Aberdeen- 

 shire, who pledged themselves to leave the Erastian church. 

 And so on ; each new page revealing glimpses of the past, 

 civil and sacred, religious and social, and of the numerous 

 movements, now matters of history, that characterised the 

 middle of this century. 



By the end of December, John Taylor had completed 

 his labours on the herbarium, and steps were then taken for 

 its presentation to the University of Aberdeen. This took 

 place on the last day of -1880, Mr. James and Mr. John 

 Taylor representing John Duncan ; and Dr. James Trail 

 Professor of Botany, the University. The herbarium was 

 accepted by the professor, who, after examination, expressed 

 a high opinion of its value, and deposited it for safe keep- 

 ing and exhibition in the Natural History Museum of 



