IN MEMORIAM : WILLIAM CRAWFORD WILLIAMSON, LLD., F.R.S. 29 



Coal Measures of Lancashire'; ■ Exogenous Structure amongst the 

 Stems of the Coal Measures' (1871). 



It will be seen that 1871 was marked by great intellectual activity, 

 especially in the direction of original research amongst the fossil coal 



plants provided with microscopical structure. Many circumstances 

 led to this rich effloresence, the fruit of which is embodied in his now 

 famous Royal Society's Memoirs. In 1872 he resigned the department 

 of Geology at Owens College to Boyd Dawkins. The period of 

 preparation was passed ; the man and the hour were ripe, and 

 precisely at this time the rich material of the Ganister-beds of the 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire Coal Fields was poured with unstinted 

 hand into the lap of Professor Williamson. An active band of 

 geologists, headed by that well-known pioneer of paleobotany, John 

 Butterworth, F.R.M.S., of Shaw, near Oldham (who was one of the 

 first to apply successfully the method of sectionising fossil plants to the 

 study of fossil botany), and including generous toilers from Lancashire, 

 workers such as J. Nield, George Wilde, and Isaac Earnshaw, 

 supplemented later by James Lomax (to whose skill the well-known 

 larger sections are due). All these vied with each other in providing 

 precious material for the great work ; from Yorkshire, too, came 

 friendly aid, and many valuable and new specimens were placed in 

 the g professor's J hands by James Spencer and James Binns, due to 

 their untiring energy and perseverance in the collection and study of 

 the Halifax material. 



From 187 1 to the close of his laborious and useful life, 

 Dr. Williamson issued a continuous series of books and 



papers 



which, as a monument of scientific labour and research, may well 

 astonish us. This year saw the appearance of the first part in the 



be 



■6 



monographs * On the Organisation of the Fossil Plants of the Coal 

 Measures/ This is Part L, ' Calamites/ and was followed by 18 other 

 memoirs in continuation of this remarkable work, supplemented by 

 three more written in connection with Dr. Scott, F.R.S., of the 

 Jodrell Laboratory, Kew, of which, however, the two last are yet 

 in the press. In addition, however, to this herculean work, nearly 

 every year saw the publication of many other papers from the 

 untiring pen of the author, amongst which we may cite ' Notices of 

 Further Researches of the Fossil Plants of the Coal Measures' (1872) ; 

 'On the Fern Stems and Petioles of the Coal Measures'; 'On Coal 

 and Coal Plants' (1S73); 'Primeval Vegetation in its I 

 Doctrine of Natural Selection and Evolution ' (1874). 

 work became fitlv recognised, for in 1874. the Royal So< 



And now his 



him with its gold medal in recognition of his researches. Then 



Jan. iSq6, 



