MeTYioir of the Rev. Thomas Brown. 341 



have hitherto been realised by the Berwickshire Club. I 

 write as an outsider and onlooker. The work done within 

 its sphere, the ability and method of the workers are full of 

 interest to all who read the contributions to its Proceedings. 

 I have been struck, in this connection, with the value of the 

 Hon. Secretary's Edition of Mrs Barwell-Carter's Selections 

 from Dr George Johnston's Correspondence. In that volume 

 the area within which the Club works is well seen ; the 

 names of the chief observers (faces lucentes) and of the 

 distinguished naturalists who took a deep interest in the 

 Club's Proceedings are given. With many of these Dr 

 Brown was acquainted ; with some of them he lived in 

 terms of close friendship. 



Botany was Dr Brown's earliest and favourite study. 

 Langton and its environments presented a rich gathering 

 ground. The parish lies partly in the Lammermoors and 

 partly in the well-cultivated fields of the Merse. Moor and 

 moss, hill and dale, and the wild wooded valley, through 

 which Langton Burn flows, were all that a young, enthusiastic 

 botanist could desire. In 1834 he prepared the notice of 

 the botany of the district for the "New Statistical Account." 

 Among the forms mentioned as "lately discovered" is 

 Saxifraga hirculus, Dr Johnston's reference to which, in his 

 Natural History of the Eastern Borders, is as follows: — "5. 

 hirculus. In a wet moorish spot near Langton Wood, 

 plentiful, Eev. Thomas Brown, who had the good fortune 

 to add this beautiful species to the Flora of Scotland." 

 When Dr Brown was called to occupy the position of 

 President of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, during its 

 Jubilee Year, 1881, he referred to this in his interesting 

 Address. "I remember well," he said, "the enthusiasm 

 with which Dr Johnston welcomed and submitted to the 

 Club the little Saxifrage from Langton Lees, and the 

 Anthoceros punctatus from the fields of Gavinton — both, at the 

 time, new to the- Flora of Scotland," We have clear proof, 

 in the same Address, that in his botanical studies he had 

 much more in view than the mere gathering of plants, and 

 the attainment of expertness in hortus siccus terminology. It 

 was the living form which specially interested him — its 

 relations to other forms, its surroundings, its use, the use 

 of its beauty, and many such like elements associated with 



