286 Miscellaneous — Major John Plant. 



more choice examples, remain in the collection. Many of the slabs 

 include several heads, some of thera exhibiting as many as nine 

 distinct individuals, so that we have altogether a perfect forest of 

 these beautiful sea lilies. The spot where these were found is in a 

 quarry at Lymmas House, Holgate, near Marske, a place in Swale- 

 dale, some 13 miles from Richmond, and rather difficult of access. 

 They have not to my knowledge been found in any other locality. 

 Altogether the collection numbers over 10,000 specimens ; there 

 being, according to a catalogue made by Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 9365 selected specimens in the cabinets. 



Mr. Reed was of a retiring disposition, and took little interest in 

 public affaii's. He was, however, of a genial disposition, and in 

 private life was a pleasant companion. 



He never married and lived an extremely abstemious life, per- 

 forming many acts of private charity and benevolence which the 

 world saw not. He suffered a long time from bronchitis, and about 

 ten days before his death he received a chill which brought on his 

 old complaint, to which he succumbed on Monday the 9th of May at 

 the advanced age of eightj^-two years. 



Mr. Reed's death will be sincerely mourned by many friends, 

 his loss to the city of York will be great, but to the Yorkshire 

 Philosophical Society still greater. — Yorkshire Herald, May 10, 1892» 



IMIISOEXjXjJ^IsrEOTJS- 



Major John Plant, F.G.S. 



The fact that Major Plant is about to sever his long connexion 

 of forty-two years with the Peel Park Museum, Salford, affords us 

 a welcome opportunity of giving a brief sketch of the life and woric 

 of one to whom naturalists and the general public of Salford owe 

 so much, and whose long services the Museum Committee recently 

 recognized by a gratifying tribute. 



Major Plant is the son of the late Mr. Robert Fisher Plant, a 

 stationer of Leicester, in which town he was born in October, 1819. 

 At an early age he entered the National School of his native town, 

 and there acquired the rudiments of a sound education, side by side 

 with the Right Hon. A. J. Mundella. On leaving that school, he 

 continued his studies at the Mechanics' Institution, displaying con- 

 siderable taste for drawing and Natural Science. It was intended 

 that he should adopt the medical profession, and with that view he 

 was ai'ticled to a surgeon of Leicester, Mr. T. Paget, but it was 

 afterwards found necessary for him to abandon this pursuit, to assist 

 in his father's growing business. In 1844, he was elected Honorary 

 Secretary of the Leicester Naturalists' Club, and shortly afterwards 

 was appointed Curator of a small museum which had been founded 

 in the town through the instrumentality of the Literary and Philo- 

 sophical Society. By this time Mr. Plant had obtained that keen 

 predilection for geology which has characterized him all his life ; 

 and it was also in 1844 that he read before the British Association, 



