4 
naturalist friend of his says :—‘ After successfully going 
through a course of elementary botany he joined, with other 
members of the Naturalist Society, in real practical field-work, 
to him the most enjoyable part of natural history.’ 
Mr. Soppitt, along with Mr. W. West, F.L.S., Mr. Car- 
ter, and others, investigated and catalogued in a very short 
time the flowering plants of the Bradford district so com- 
eigen that comparatively few additions have since been made. 
Mr. Carter continues— 
At this time Mr. Soppitt and Mr. West had often long walks before 
breakfast in search of nature’s treasures. For a few years he worked in- 
defatigably at our British flowering plants, walking long dincanes: in the 
him as the common daisy is to an ordinary observer. He did not stop 
here. ‘ Onward’ was his motto, and, after making an acquaintance with the 
Phanerogams, he commenced the study of fungi, both large and small, 
through the instrumentality of Mr West, who strongly urged him to take 
up this neglected branch of science. Here was a wide field open for origi- 
results which are known to Mycologists throughout the world.” 
As one instance of the thoroughness of his method of 
working, we may here state that he devoted one whole season, - 
_ scarcely including anything else, to the tedious study of 
grasses and sedges. 
Being so ardent a lover of nature all her works were full 
of interest for him ; birds, insects, flowers, ferns, moths, or 
fungi were equally his delight. He knew the birds as inti- 
mately as one knows his closest friends. The notes of each 
one were familiar to him. He would stand and listen with 
rapture to their songs and calls. He often went many miles 
on purpose to hear the songs of the Nightingale. and the 
Grass-hopper Warbler and would talk with ecstasy of their 
charming notes. For fifteen years he contributed weekly, 
often jointly with Mr. Carter, to the Naturalists’ Column of 
the Bradford Weekly Telegraph. Among the joint articles were 
“Rural Walks Round Bradford,” “ The Flora of the Bradford 
District” being a list of 550 species of flowering plants and 
ferns found within a radius of six miles round Bradford; ‘A 
List of the Mammalia of the Bradford District,” ‘‘ Our Local 
Reptiles,” etc. Mr. Soppitt and Mr. Carter prepared a list of 
‘Land and Freshwater Mollusca of Upper Airedale,” which 
appeared in the Naturalist for March and see 1888. Ninety- 
three species were enumerated. Not more than two species 
have been added since its publication. This list also appeared 
