In Memoriam — William Hodgson, A.L.S. 



gathered. What impressed me about him was his geniality and 

 wide range of knowledge. He took such an interest in so many 

 things that he must have lived a happy life. I was always 

 pleased that I had been instrumental in obtaining for him a 

 place amongst the 50 Associates of the Linnean Society, and 

 I feel very glad that before he died he was able to commit to 

 print the information he had gathered during his long life about 

 the plants of Cumberland. Now that I have more leisure than 

 heretofore I shall greatly miss his letters, and to have been 

 associated with him for so many years will remain with me as 

 a pleasant memory.' 



His 4 Flora of Cumberland' (the first attempt to provide 

 a complete flora of the county) was published just two years 

 before his death, and it contains a vast' amount of information 

 of the greatest service to amateur botanists, for whom, he said, 

 the book was specially compiled. As his observations, which 

 were carried out in all the divisions of the county, extended 

 over a period of more than half a century, it is scarcely to be 

 wondered at, considering how diligent and persistent he was, 

 that, out of the 1,200 plants recorded in his Flora, he had been 

 able to verify for himself the existence of over 1,100 of them. 

 In addition to his frequent contributions to 'The Naturalist* 

 and other papers, a number of valuable articles (read originally 

 before various scientific societies) were published in the ' Tran- 

 sactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Association,' pre- 

 viously referred to. Of these articles the one entitled ' The 

 Hill Naturalist ' was regarded by himself as the most interesting ; 

 in it he referred in detail to the animals and the ' feathered 

 occupants ' of the hills as well as to the plants. Other articles 

 were ' The Botany of the Solway Shore,' ' The Botany of 

 the Caldew Valley' ('Canda's Sweet Vale'), 'The Flora of 

 the Ulleswater District,' ' Botanical Waifs in Cumberland,' 

 and ' The Grasses of Mid-Cumberland.' It is worthy of 

 mention that in the ' Transactions of the Cumberland and 

 Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society ' a paper 

 appeared by him on ' A Century of ' Paines ' or Local Govern- 

 ment in the time of the Stuarts as illustrated by extracts from a 

 Paine Book for the Hamlet of Weathermelock. ' About the last 

 work he did (and one might almost say a fitting work to close 

 his life) was to write a summary of the botany of Cumberland 

 for the 'Victoria History of the Counties of England.' 



The present generation of local botanists can never forget 

 the kindness, the enthusiasm, the humour, and the hearty good- 

 will of William Hodgson, the veteran botanist of Cumberland. 



Carlisle, July igoz, WlLLIAM THOMSON, 



1901 September z. \ 



