6 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



his residence, Buness, in Unst, on the 1st of August (1874) 

 this present year. 



Mr Edmonston belonged to a family celebrated for their 

 literary tastes and scientific attainments. He was nephew to 

 Dr Arthur Edmonston, the author of " View of the Zetland 

 Islands," published in two volumes, as far back as the year 

 1809. His predecessor and uncle, Mr Thomas Edmonston of 

 Buness, was well known as a corresponding member and 

 contributor to several of our scientific Societies and Journals ; 

 and as an excellent and an improving landlord. It was on 

 his property that Dr Hibbert, when investigating the geolo- 

 gical structure of the Zetland Islands in 1817, made the 

 interesting and valuable discovery of chromate of iron, and of 

 a rare mineral, the hydrate of magnesia, imbedded in the 

 serpentine rocks of the island of Unst. 



Dr Lawrence Edmonston has done much to promote the 

 knowledge of the natural history of the Zetland Islands ; and 

 many of his contributions are to be found in the memoirs of 

 the Wernerian Society. 



His talented son, Mr Thomas Edmonston, and cousin to our 

 deceased member, when only a student, by patient and well- 

 directed labour, produced a " Flora of Shetland," so careful 

 and exact, that only a few additions have been made to it, 

 since it was published in 1846. This young and promising 

 botanist, from whom so much good work was expected, met 

 with an untimely death, by the accidental discharge of a gun, 

 when serving in the capacity of naturalist, on board H.M.S. 

 " Herald," employed on a survey of the Pacific coast of 

 America. His " Flora of Shetland " will always be referred 

 to by. his successors, who may have occasion to labour in the 

 same direction, and will serve to keep his name and memory 

 in grateful remembrance. 



Mr Thomas Edmonston of Buness was elected a Fellow of 

 the Eoyal Physical Society in April 1870. The graphic and 

 delightful description which he gave us at that meeting, of 

 certain animals under domestication, as the seal, the sea 

 otter, the tame Shetland pony, and sea guUs, under the 

 title of " Our Pets in Unst," will be in the recollection of 

 many here present. A cordial vote of thanks was awarded to 



