Vlll 



Obituary Notice of Fellow deceased. 



material for renewed observation of its marvellous properties for several 

 years. 



A meeting of the Linnean Society (February 15, 1877) at which my father 

 exhibited some of the plasmodium of this gathering in active streaming 

 condition (an object which very few had at that time ever had an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing) is well remembered by those who were present. The 

 mysterious rhythmic backward and forward flow through the vein-like 

 channels of the film of undifferentiated protoplasm is indeed a most striking 

 phenomenon. His was no dry and lifeless exposition ; he stood rather as 

 one who had ascended into the Mount of Vision and whose high privilege 

 and urgent duty it was to reveal what had been vouchsafed to his view. 

 This was, in fact, his attitude of mind to all the phenomena of nature, 

 whether the ways of beast or bird, the structure of plants, geological or 

 physical phenomena, or the movements of heavenly bodies. It was all a 

 revelation of the mystery of life or of the environment of living things on the 

 earth and in the universe. When moved to speak of these things he would 

 cast aside a shyness which had clung to him from his boyhood, and discourse 

 with a force and eloquence which carried conviction to the hearers and 

 enlisted their sympathies in the cause. 



From this time onwards his attention was more and more concentrated on 

 the Mycetozoa. The species were diligently collected on his rambles, 

 compared with the published descriptions, and accurate and beautiful drawings 

 were made of them. Many ladies, friends of the family, lent willing aid, and 

 samples and small collections came dropping in. He soon started a large 

 " ledger," in which references were entered to all notes and drawings of the 

 various species scattered through his note-books, as well as to the specimens 

 themselves, stored in small cardboard boxes, and to microscopic slides on 

 which specimens were mounted in glycerine jelly. He published papers from 

 time to time, at first in his own name but soon in association with his 

 daughter, describing new species or interesting variants from types already 

 described. He was, of course, familiar with the writings of de Bary, whose 

 classical investigation of the Mycetozoa first demonstrated their position in 

 the zoological rather than the botanical kingdom, and he regarded it as a 

 high privilege when Prof. I. Bailey Balfour handed over to him for examina- 

 tion the collection which he had made years before at Strasburg when working 

 under de Bary. Subsequently Greville's collection from the Herbarium of 

 the University of Edinburgh was similarly lent him. He eagerly cultivated 

 any germ of enthusiasm for the group, whether in his own circle or among 

 correspondents, and he soon had a large number of friendly workers and 

 collaborators, both at home and abroad. Every letter of interest was duly 

 entered in the ledger, and be reckoned no pains wasted which were spent on 

 his carefully considered (and duly copied) answers, which were generally 

 accompanied by boxes of typical specimens. His daughter had set herself, 

 some time before, to learn to read Polish, in order that the important systematic 

 work of Eostafinsky, another of de Bary's pupils, might be at their disposal. 



