m 



OBITUARY. 



Burton Mounsher Watkins died at hig residence, Treaddow 

 near Boss, Herefordshire, on the 80th of July. He was in his 

 seventy-sixth year, having been born in December, 1816 in 

 Liverpool. Very early in life his father removed to London 

 where young Burton Watkins received his education at a school 

 in Mount Street, Grosvenor Square. In London his inherent love 

 of plants first showed itself under somewhat unfavourable circum- 

 stances. He used to relate in after years how, when he was a 

 small boy, he pushed himself with difficulty through some railings 

 at Guy's Hospital to obtain some buttercups which were flowering 

 inside. The recollection of his intense childish delight in possessing 

 them did not pass away till old age. Ill-health obliged his father 

 to migrate to Monmouth, when the subject of our notice was about 

 fifteen years old; and in the neighbourhood of Monmouth, and the 

 adjoining parts of Herefordshire, he spent the remainder of his life. 

 His father, in the intervals of his business as a shoemaker, devoted 

 himself to entomology, and is believed to have been the first to 

 capture the scarlet tiger, Hijpercompa dominula, in Monmouthshire. 

 These expeditions first brought out young Watkins's inborn taste 

 for Natural History, and he soon made Botany his especial study. 

 This study he pursued with the most steady and painstaking 



perseverance ; his botanical education being entirely self-acquired, 



from ^ such books as he could borrow. His habit was to make 



laborious analyses of these in manuscript. About the year 1844 



he began collecting plants on the Doward Hills, in Herefordshire, 



and in 1845 discovered there Kceleria cristata, a grass which has 



only twice since that date been noted in the county. Soon after 



1845, the discovery by him of Hiitchiyisia petraa upon the same 



hills brought Watkins under the notice of Mr. E. M. Lingwood, 



then residing at Lyston. He visited the Dowards in company with 



Mr. Watkins, and gave him much encouragement and help in 



various ways. Professor Babington was at this period (1847 to 



1856) in the habit of visiting Mr. Lingwood at Lyston, and joined 



in affording help and encouragement to the young naturalist. 



Thus encouraged, Burton Watkins steadily pursued his favourite 



subject, and became before long an accurate and accomplished 



botanist. He proceeded to study the Mosses and Hepatic^, and 



was a correspondent of Dr. Braithwaite and the late Bev. J. C. 



Crouch ; and he gained an extensive acquaintance with the critical 



forms of the genus Rosa, and to a less extent with those of the 



Rubi. Of all these, the Hepatica* formed his favourite study, and 



were the last to be relinquished when infirmity and the loss of 



accurate eyesight obliged him to give up work with the microscope. 



Watkins's discovery of Riccia sorocarpa Bischoff in 1872 upon the 



Dowards brought him into correspondence with Dr. Carrington 



and Mr. Pearson ; and with the latter especially he maintained a 



correspondence for many years. We believe that he contributed 



_^ — ._ — ~~j j _,— — ^ — — .- ^^ — „ — — .. 



the life-history of the curious Riccia natans L. 



knowled 



