46 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



he had examined years before, were readily recalled without re- 

 ference to note-books : indeed I doubt whether he kept diaries or 

 made any but the briefest memoranda. Moreover, the many-sided- 

 ness of his knowledge was exceptional ; not only was he, as uni- 

 versally admitted, eminent in all branches of palaeontology and 

 stratigraphy, but also he was no mean proficient in^mineralogy and 

 petrology. Yet he was no mere gatherer of learning. His critical, 

 or perhaps I should rather say, his judicial powers were not less 

 remarkable. He saw almost b}^ instinct the weak point of a theory ; 

 and a " brilliant hypothesis," in its brief day of fashion, found small 

 favour with him. Yet more, while delighting most in the scien- 

 tific aspect of geology, he was so intimately acquainted with its 

 practical applications that he might have added largely to his 

 income by acting as a consulting geologist. This, however, he 

 could rarely be induced to do ; while anxious to make sufficient pro- 

 vision for old age, and with this end living always with the utmost 

 frugality, he refused many opportunities of augmenting his income 

 and thus of doing with ease that which he accomplished with diffi- 

 culty. 



Professor Morris's written contributions to science are numerous, 

 but they are less numerous than his friends desired. In this matter 

 also his shrinking from self-assertion was evident. A paper had to be 

 almost extorted from him by friendly persistence, and I have known 

 him press the information at his command on another rather than 

 put pen to paper himself. Still the biography in the Geological Maga- 

 zine, to which I have already referred, records a very considerable 

 list of papers, in addition to his 'Catalogue of Fossils ' and the volume 

 on the Great Oolite Mollusca, written jointly with the late Dr. 

 Lycett, as one of the memoirs of the Palaeontographical Society. 

 Since this date (1878), a few, but only a few, have been added. 

 These papers, however, will serve to indicate the remarkably wide 

 range of Professor Morris's knowledge. They embrace subjects 

 mineralogical, stratigraphical, and palEeontological, and while among 

 the last named, hardly any important class in the animal kingdom 

 is unnoticed, there are several devoted to fossil botany, of which 

 rarely studied branch of science Professor Morris had an exceptional 

 knowledge. He was, I believe, the first to detect the presence of 

 Lycopodiaceous spores in Coal. But if he abstained more than his 

 friends desired from placing his views on record by means of the 

 printing-press, he was liberal in imparting knowledge in all other 

 ways. For years he was assiduous as a geological lecturer, not only, 

 as I have said, in University College, but in more temporary appoint- 

 ments at many other places. His hand was present to help in the 

 books of more than one of his illustrious contemporaries, and he was 

 so liberal in communicating information to his friends that one of 

 them has said that " it was often difficult for him to distinguish what 

 was his own work and what he owed to Professor Morris, seeing that 

 the Professor so heely communicated his knowledge in conversation, 

 that it became incorporated with the author's own stores." 



Professor Morris was never a robust man, and after a severe 



