In Memoriam: James Needham. 297 
in the above two names. The late J. B. Brown, a life 
member of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, was one of 
Needham’s practical friends. 
We learn that his foundry mates used to laugh and banter 
him for a while, but this gradually changed to admiration and 
respect as his many finds became duly acknowledged in the 
mycological world. 
Scientific books, mostly mycological, were presented to 
him at various times by admiring members of the Union, and 
by others who had come in contact with him. From 1891, 
when I invited him to join the Fungus Foray of the Union, 
he has not often missed a meeting. For some years he has been 
a valued member of the Mycological Committee. On the 
initiation of Mr. Gibbs and myself, it was through the efforts 
of this Committee, and other admiring friends connected with 
the Union, that just over five years ago he obtained an annual 
grant of £40 a year from the Murdoch Trust at Edinburgh, 
established for the benefit of worthy indigent naturalists. 
In him the Union has lost a most interesting, and exceed- 
ingly useful worker. Among the many other qualities he 
exhibited at the Annual Forays was his early rising ; he would 
be out betimes in quest of specimens, peering into corners and 
other out-of-the-way places where probably some of us would 
never think of looking. He considered his times at the forays 
to be red-letter days. 
Needham was well acquainted with all the edible species 
found in his district, and made good use of them, When first 
he began to know these he showed them to friends, but soon 
learned better than to tell of all the whereabouts of toadstools 
good for the pot. Now and again he had gone to gather a few 
for himself, when the crop for the moment had been plucked, 
and he had to return home empty-handed. 
Mr. Needham was slow of speech, but his earnestness was 
remarkable, and he was wont to express himself with amusing 
frankness in his native dialect, and with a quaintness all his 
own. He hada most genial disposition. Of educational ad- 
vantages he had little, but zest in his hobby, a keen eye, an 
alert mind, and a retentive memory, acquired for him a won- 
derful store of botanical knowledge. All his spare time was 
given to his hobby, either in the field or at home. Often in 
summer he would rise early and have a look round before 
going to the foundry. During his twenty-eight years’ nature 
studies he noted and catalogued between one and _ two 
thousand species, including flowering plants, ferns, mosses, 
hepatics and fungi. Apart from two papers in The 
Naturalist, and two others in The Halifax Naturalist in 
collaboration with the present writer, his written contributions 
are to be sought in the Hebden Bridge newspapers. He also 
1913 Aug. I. 
