368 OBITUARY NOTICE— REV. JAMES FARQUHARSON 



to the talent of so young a man. In these circumstances it 

 is surprising that Dr Farquharson had been minister of Selkirk 

 for eight years before, in 1865, he became a member of the 

 Berwickshire Naturalists' Club ; and still more surprising that 

 other eleven years elapsed before his name appeared as 

 contributor to our Transactions. His first paper (Vol. viii., p. 

 77), read at the Selkirk meeting of the Club in 1876, contains 

 a valuable list of flowering plants and ferns found within 

 the county, prefaced by a brief outline of the geographical, 

 geological, and meteorological conditions under which they 

 grow. It is followed by notes on the leafing of certain trees, 

 based on observations from 1861 to 1876. In the same 

 volume (p. 473) there is a paper "On Howebottom, the 

 Hained Ground at Bowhill," in which Dr Farquharson found 

 full scope not only for his scientific bias but for his appreciation 

 of the historical, literary, and legendary associations of the 

 Forest Shire. These, his principal contributions, were followed 

 from time to time by : — 



Notes on the effect of the winter of 1878-9 on gardens and 

 shrubberies, Vol. ix., p. 155; Do., 1879-80, Vol. ix., p. 349; 

 Do., 1880-1, Vol. IX., p. 565; Plants at St. Mary's Loch, 

 Vol. IX., p. 275; Do., Holy Island, Vol. ix., 258, 355. 



Dr Farquharson was President of the Club for the year 

 1881-2, and his Presidential Address, occupying nearly sixty 

 pages of the Transactions, may be said, by its wide range 

 of subjects, to cover the entire ground of our Club's activity, 

 and at the same time to reveal the cyclopedic extent of its 

 author's sympathies and attainments. 



Shortly after his appointment to Selkirk Dr Farquharson 

 married Martha, daughter of Mr Alexander Hector, W.S., 

 Edinburgh, and sister of Sir James Hector, K.C.M.G., Knighted 

 in 1887 for his services as Director of the Geological Survey 

 of New Zealand. He is survived by his widow and two 

 daughters. 



