Xll 



Obituary Notices of FpUows deceased. 



undergraduate days. At school " Tertius," in spite of constitutional delicacy, 

 was an apt pupil ; his guardian, partly on this account, partly because of the 

 boy's poor health, decided to train him to be his successor in the firm, and 

 effect was given to this design when King left school in 1854. The 

 experiment did not succeed as his guardian had hoped, though it cannot be 

 said that this effort to determine King's career was altogether thrown away. 



Contemporaries of King who survive recall the proceedings of a literary 

 society connected with the church to which his uncle belonged. Young 

 King, while in business, was a leading member ; his contributions to the 

 discussions, we are told, showed erudition and insight beyond his years. The 

 society subscribed for papers then rarely seen in Scotland ; among them the 

 ' Saturday Eeview,' for which King developed an especial liking that, except 

 when the paper was edited by F. Harris, he retained to the last. It may be 

 noted that when, later in life, King left the Independent community, he 

 transferred his allegiance to the Ansdicau, not the Oalvinist, Church. Not 

 improbably King's sympathies with literature and art, and -his practical out- 

 look on life, may have been paternal inheritances. But it is clear that this 

 association with a bookselling and publishing business aided in developing 

 his keen and sure taste, so appreciated by intimate friends, so unsuspected by 

 others. Nor can it be doubted that his instinct for the essential, his mastery 

 of complex detail, and his genius for organisation, which combined to render 

 his public services so valuable, benefited by their exercise during the 

 apparently fruitless and certainly irksome years of King's business life. 



With the utmost affection and regard for his uncle, King never threw his 

 heart into the business of the firm. As a small boy he had shown, in country 

 walks with his father, all the interest of a child in birds and flowers with 

 more than the usual power of remembering their names and pecubarities. 

 But in the absence of parental stimulation and in spite of delicate health, 

 this interest in natural objects, in place of being inhibited by the literary 

 drill of a classical school, gradually developed into an overpowering taste for 

 scientific study in general, and for zoological and botanical pursuits in 

 particular. His innate ambition was to be a naturalist ; his accidental 

 attachment to a business failed to suppress his devotion to natural study. 

 His spare time was given to field excursions ; his enthusiasm gained him the 

 " freedom " of the arcana of local nurserymen. His pursuits led King to 

 introduce into the business premises specimens in which he was interested. 

 These his uncle contemptuously termed " scroggs " ; King's addiction to 

 their study caused the worthy man genuine grief and much indignation. 

 After his eighteenth year King's general health greatly improved, and it 

 was clear that the situation could not persist. King continued in business 

 until he reached his majority, but immediately thereafter he announced to 

 his guardian his decision to devote what remained of his patrimony to 

 acquiring a medical education, then the only avenue to a scientific career. 

 His uncle, so far from expressing surprise, gave his approval to this decision, 

 and thereafter did all in his power to further his nephew's designs. The 



