DEATH OF PROF. MACOUN 301 



The year 1917 found him still fairly active, though his opera- 

 tions were getting more confined to the immediate neighborhood 

 of Sidney as he found walking becoming more difficult. Ever 

 since the stroke which he had in 1911, he had limped somewhat, 

 but it was his heart which prevented greater activity. This year, 

 he presented to the Herbarium of the Provincial Museum a large 

 collection of plants of Vancouver Island mounted and named, 

 also a collection of musci and lichens made by him on the Island 

 and a poriton of the mainland of British Columbia. A list of 

 names of the plants in this collection was published in the Report 

 of the Provincial Museum of Natural Nistory for 1917. To these 

 were added, before he died, his fine collection of cryptogams. 

 Thus, the Provincial Museum of Natural History has now a prac- 

 tically complete set of the flowering and other plants collected by 

 Prof. Macoun on Vancouver Island. 



During 1918 and 1919, Prof. Macoun continued his work on 

 the cryptogams, and got his collection in shape to present a set 

 to the Province as above mentioned. 



The death of his son, James M. Macoun, on Jan. 8th, 1920, 

 was a great blow to Prof. Macoun. His son had been his right 

 hand man, as it were, for nearly forty years, and his death came 

 as a great shock to him, and, for a time, he lost ambition to do 

 more work, but he had been too long active to remain idle while 

 he had strength to do anything, and he devoted considerable time, 

 in the early part of the year, to his autobiography, which he 

 brought down to 1904. Though he was not able to move much 

 about, himself, he conducted a column in the local paper, the 

 Sidney Review, and, under the name of "Rambler," invited cor- 

 respondents to send in specimens of plants for name. This he 

 continued to do until a few days before his death. 



His vitality had been much lowered by an attack of whooping 

 cough, which he had in the spring, and, in July, his heart gave 

 him much trouble, and, after less than a week's confinement to 

 the house, he died at Sidney on July 18th, 1920. 



Prof. Macoun had many strong and outstanding personal 

 characteristics. His determination and perseverance are marked 

 through all his early explorations and many accounts might be 



