6 
at Windermere, with which material Mr. Soppitt produced the 
Puccima by infection on Carex vulgaris growing in his own gar- 
den at Halifax. He contributed occasionally to the Journal of 
Botany, and a paper on “‘Bermerkungen tiber Puccima digraphidis 
Sopp.” in Zeitschrift fiir Pflanzenkrankheiten, 1897, vol. 
viii, p. 8. Mr. Soppitt was the first to demonstrate the con- 
nection of an 4cidimm on the earthnut, Conopodium denudatum, 
with a Puccinia on sweet dock, Polygonum Bistorta. In 1892 
while on a visit to Hardcastle Crags with the writer, Mr. 
Needham of Hebden Bridge told him that he and Mr. H 
Pickles had often noticed on their botanical rambles a yellow 
fungus on earthnut, and that wherever this occurred the sur- 
rounding sweet dock plants were soon after affected with a 
brown one; also, that in places where the earthnut was free 
from disease the sweet dock remained the same. This 
information led Mr. Soppitt to undertakea series of experimental 
cultures, with a view to testing whether any relationship 
existed between thetwo. Eventually he succeeded in proving 
they were but two separate stages in the life history of one 
fungus. The experiments are detailed in full in Grevillea, 
vol. xxii, no. 102, 1893, and a lucid description of the whole 
life-history was given under the title of ‘A Remarkable 
in the Halifax Naturalist, vol. ii, pp. 108-113. 
Though he paid special attention to the Uredines, no other 
branch of mycology was neglected. Mr. Soppitt contributed 
very largely to the list of fungi in Lee’s Flora of West York- 
shive. His only regret in connection with this, expressed 
many a time, was its premature appearance and consequent 
almost out-of-date classification. 
He discovered a Lactarius at Bolton: Wood; new to science, 
which he named L. involutus; this is figured in Cook’s 
Illustrations, t. 1194. Mr. Massee of the Royal Herb- 
arium named a genus of Thelephorez, Soppittiella, and a 
species of Dasyscypha, D. Soppitii in his honour. The generic 
name has been adopted by continental botanists. 
Since first coming to Halifax five years ago, he has stead- 
fastly worked with the writer at the cryptogamic flora of the 
parish, more especially the fungi. In this department many 
of the rarer discoveries are due to his diligent investigations ; 
many species new to science have been added. By his aid 
this branch of botany has been more thoroughly worked at 
Halifax than at any period since the time of Bolton (1761-1795) 
a pioneer of British Mycology. At intervals during the last 
