160 In Memortam—Henry Thomas Sopprtt. 
Gooseberry. Lactarius involutus Sopp. is figured in Cooke’s 
‘Illustrations,’ t. 1194. Dasyceypha Soppittia Mass, is named 
after him, as also is the genus Sopfittella, one of the Thele- 
phoree. His last paper, in conjunction with Mr. Crossland, 
appeared in the January number of ‘The Naturalist,’ and con 
tained areal of several new species of Discomycetes.’ 
Fo or three years before his death Soppitt worked on 
the fungi ae the Halifax district with Mr. Chas. Crossland, and 
some of the results of this joint labour are yet to be published. 
It is to be regretted in the interests of science that Soppitt 
was not left at leisure to prosecute his investigations. Men of 
his perception, and of like industry and enthusiasm, are not so 
common among us that they can be neglected with impunity, 
and our indifference to them is likely to cost us dear. We see 
a fungus threaten our forests and imperil our timber supply; 
the phylloxera beggars a province, and microscopic organisms 
decimate our large cities; yet we will not learn to value those 
whose work might save us from such disasters. 
Mr. Soppitt was a man of a thoroughly human and amiable 
disposition, and had that keen sense of- humour which is often 
the inheritance of Yorkshiremen, and which not seldom enables 
them to ride merrily over many a wave of ill-luck. ‘Devoid of 
personal jealousy, and ever free to impart the information he 
possessed to others,’ says a fellow worker, ‘no wonder he made 
many friends.’ In truth, to be in the open field with him under 
the blue sky was to a nature-lover a liberal education. The 
glorious sun itself did not beam more brightly than did his face 
as he noted each herb and tree and flower, each bird, beast, and 
insect, and poured out of his full brain words of wisdom about 
them all. He was a naturalist alike in head and in heart. n 
the hills, and in the meadows and woods, he was in full 
sympathy with his surroundings. Nothing was strange to him. 
He had made them all his own by his love of them. They were — 
his by the peaceful right of intellectual conquest. The joys of 
Nature were his to the full. A few short weeks passed with him — 
in the Alps will ever be green and pleasant in the writer's 
remembrance. So fitted was he by disposition and culture for 
such scenes that this foreign mountain-land raineibig to belong to 
him by right rather than to its natural inhabitan 
Thus “thie erstwhile joyous springtide Spats “put sadly for 
some of us. The summer, indeed, is coming, the birds and the 
bees and the flowers; the days will be long and the heavens 
will be bright; we doubt not that wood nin field and fell will 
again be as lovely and as fragrant as heretofore; but shall we 
A. 
find them so, wanting our friend ? H. P. 
— 
Naturalist, — 
