344 



IN MEMORIAM. 



than fifty plants noted by him had never been previously 

 detected, although several well-known botanists had from time 

 to time published notes and lists of the Sark Flora. 



During his residence of half-a- century in Guernsey Mr. 

 Derrick seems never to have got tired of visiting Sark, 

 and few people knew the island as thoroughly as he did. 

 Seeing what valuable work he had done among the flowering 

 plants, I persuaded him to direct his attention to the Mosses 

 and Hepatica? of Sark about which very little indeed was 

 known, though the island seemed to offer a promising field for 

 investigation. Always enthusiastic about anything that 

 concerned his favourite island — for he considered Sark as 

 peculiarly his own — he agreed to hunt for and collect 

 specimens and hand them over to me if I would undertake to 

 identify them and publish a list. Several visits of a week or 

 two at a time he made specially for this purpose, and the final 

 result of an omnium gather urn made in every part of the island, 

 and in all kinds of localities where mosses are to be found, 

 Avas the compilation of a most valuable list of some 80 species 

 with their local distribution. This list was printed in the 

 Transactions of this Society for the year 1903. 



Some years earlier than this Mr. Derrick had assisted 

 with great zeal and activity in collecting the fungi of 

 Guernsey for the preparation of a systematic list. A 

 reference to the pages of the Flora of Guernsey will show how 

 extensive his work was. More than 120 species of fungi are 

 there recorded under his name, and several of these have not 

 since been found by any other collector. 



The few points that I have just briefly touched upon 

 will suffice to show how keen and energetic Mr. Derrick 

 was in everything that he undertook. His death causes 

 a lamentable gap in the front rank of the members of this 

 Society, and the wide interest he took in all matters and 

 subjects embraced by the Society will make his loss the more 

 severely felt. Personally I have lost in him an old and 

 valued friend of twenty years' standing, a friend whose 

 memory will always be endeared to me by his sterling honesty 

 of purpose, and his wholesome hatred of everything that 

 savoured of make-believe and pretence. 



