173 
HENRY BOSWELL: 
WEST YORKSHIRE MOSSES. 
WILLIAM WHITWELL, F.L.S. 
Mr. F. A. Lexs has well indicated (Nat., May 1897, p. 132) the 
nature of Mr. Boswell’s connection with Yorkshire bryology: not 
special, but general—as a universal referee and helper. Having had 
the pleasure of some degree of personal acquaintance with him 
during my official residence at Oxford, 1870-77, kept up by frequent 
correspondence in after years, I may be permitted to add my 
testimony to the charm and generosity of Mr. Boswell’s friendship. 
It was not until after my removal to York, in 1877, that I paid any 
attention to mosses, but Mr. Boswell was an excellent phanerogamic 
botanist as well as muscologist, and was always pleased to be 
consulted about my specimens and records. His chief interest had, 
however, already centred itself upon the study in connection with 
Which his great reputation has been won, and had passed beyond the 
Moss-flora of our own islands to embrace that of the world itself. 
I well remember spending an evening at his pleasant villa residence 
_ on the Woodstock Road, and being astonished by the quantity of 
Material he had brought together from the most distant and various 
countries. His Sphagnums alone seemed to me enough to occupy 
a life-time. 
Mr, Lees, in his brief appreciation, somewhat misrepresents 
Mr. Boswell’s social position. He was not a saddler, but a manufac- 
turer as well as retailer of portmanteaus and bags. He inherited 
the business from his father, as a well-established one, at the age 
of 25, and through it as well as by marriage he was placed in 
Possession of means sufficient for ample comfort and culture—means 
which he used well. A most kindly humour marked his conversation 
as well as correspondence. The four letters which I subjoin are 
siven—out of many—as pleasant illustrations of this, and also as 
being incidentally connected with West Yorkshire species, enabling 
me to correct two records in Mr. Lees’ ‘Flora.’ It was one of the 
Charms of writing to Mr. Boswell that he was sure to reply before 
long, and almost always to enclose some ‘good thing’ or another— 
often several—for your acceptance. 
_ TU have no skill to appraise his work, but know the estimate 
formed of it by men qualified to judge. I speak of the friendly 
senial man, the ever-ready helper ; to moss-students what Mr. Arthur 
ehnett is to collectors and recorders of our flowering plants. 
Higher praise I know not. 
