A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 187 



Assisted by the generosity of my eldest son and a 

 few friends, I at once negotiated the purchase of the 

 specimen as it stood, the removal to be accomplished 

 at my expense. This was a work of time and 

 patience, but the tree was at last presented to the 

 Owens College Museum, and now stands without a 

 rival for magnitude and grandeur in any of the 

 museums of the world. 



This specimen luckily came into my possession in 

 time for a photograph and measurements of it to be 

 included in my monograph. Other examples of the 

 same kind, though much smaller, have been dis- 

 covered, and one of which is preserved. 



During the years in which I had been engaged in 

 the inquiries described, I had filled various Presi- 

 dential chairs. For more than twenty years I 

 occupied that position in the large Manchester 

 Society of Scientific Students. In 1882 I became 

 President of the Microscopic and Natural History 

 section of the Manchester Philosophical and Literary 

 Society. In 1880-1882, I was President of the 

 large Union of Yorkshire Naturalists. I presided 

 over the Geological Section of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science at its meeting 

 in Southport, September 1884; the same year 



master appeared, looking astonished, and said, "Not Profes- 

 " sor Williamson I " " Certainly." " And from Manchester 

 " this morning," said the shivering owner. " Yes, and why 

 " not ? " " Well, sir," answered he, " to my thinking, you 

 " and the tree are a pair, for teaching us lessons." 



