April, 1921. 



The Irish N aturalist. 



41 



HENRY WILLIAM LETT. 



Henry William Lett was bori at Hillsborough, in Co. Down, 

 on 4th December, 1836, and died at Aghaderg, in the same 

 comity, on 26th December, 1920, at the age of 84. The 

 son of a clergyman of the Church of Ireland, he in turn was 

 ordained, and spent his life as a country rector within 

 thirty miles of his birthplace — ^first at Derriaghy, in Antrim, 

 subsequently at Meigh and Ardmore in Armagh, but mainly 

 at Aghaderg, in Down. 



Like his contemporary S. A. Stewart, H. W, Lett does not 

 appear to have taken to natural history pursuits till long 

 after attaining manhood. He joined the Belfast Field 

 Club in 1878, fifteen years after its foundation, when he was 

 forty-two years of age. His first published contribution is 

 a brief report of a paper read before the same Club on 15th 

 November, 1881 (when he was forty-five), entitled " Records 

 of a Former Level of Lough Neagh," and describing the 

 remarkable submerged scarp — still unmapped and un- 

 explained (see /. N., xxiv., pp. 8, 65) — ^that extends along 

 much to the southern and western shores of the lake. His 

 first botanical contribution was a paper read before the 

 Club a year and a half later, on " Fungi, Mushrooms, and 

 Toadstools — Disease, Blight, and Food-producing Plants." 

 To the Fungi he paid considerable attention for many years, 

 acting as conductor of various Fungus Fora^/s " organised 

 by the Club, and publishing in 1885, as a Supplement to the 

 Club's Proceedings, a list of the local species to the number 

 of 581. Lett paid some little attention also to Lichens, and 

 indeed there was no group of plants which he did not explore. 



To the Mosses and Hepatics he devoted much time, and 

 his published work deals mainly with these groups. To the 

 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (of which 

 he was elected a member in 1896) he contributed three 

 Reports on these plants. The first (1889) dealt with the 

 flora of the Mourne Mountain district ; the second (in 

 conjunction with D. McArdle) on the plants of Tore Water- 

 fall, near Killarney, famous among bryologists ; and the 

 third formed one of the Clare Island Survey series. The 

 field-work for the last-named was carried out w^hen Lett was 



