The Scottish Naturalist. 



283 



OBITUARY. 



ROFESSOR WILLIAM RAMSAY M'NAB, M.D., F.L.S., 



JL may be said to have inherited the strong tastes and ability 

 that he possessed for botanical and entomological studies, his 

 grandfather and father having successively been well-known Cura- 

 tors of the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens ; while an uncle, Dr. 

 Gilbert M'Nab, had a strong taste for entomology. 



Born in 1844, he was educated in Edinburgh, and took the 

 degree of M.D. in the University there in 1866. While yet an 

 undergraduate, he held the position of assistant to Professor Bal- 

 four ; and he also spent some time pursuing his studies in Ger- 

 many, under Professor A. Braun, among others. 



After graduating, he engaged for three years in medical practice 

 in Edinburgh, until appointed to the Professorship of Natural 

 History in the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. Two 

 years afterwards he obtained the Professorship of Botany in the 

 Royal College of Science, Dublin, which appointment he held till 

 his death. He also held the appointments of Superintendent of 

 the Glasnevin Botanic Garden ; Consulting Botanist and Entomo- 

 logist to the Royal Dublin Society; and Extern Examiner in Botany 

 in Victoria University ; and for some time before his death he was 

 Swiney Lecturer on Geology in the British Museum. 



As a teacher he was enthusiastic, and did not spare himself in 

 his efforts to impart the best scientific instruction to his students. 

 His style as a lecturer was clear ; and he was one of the first to 

 follow the new methods of research and of instruction that have 

 so promoted the successful study of Botany on the Continent of 

 Europe. 



His earlier contributions to science related chiefly to Scotch 

 Coleoptera, to which fact the earlier volumes of the Entomologist* s 

 Monthly Magazine bear witness. He afterwards confined his atten- 

 tion almost wholly to Botany. Among his more important papers 

 are those on The Structure of the Leaves of Certaitt Coniferce ; 

 On the Revision of the Species of Abies ; and Experiments on the 

 Movement of Water in Plants. Two small books entitled Out- 

 lines of the Morphology and Physiology of Plants, and Outlines of 

 the Classification of Plants, have enjoyed an extensive circulation, 



