IN MEMORIAM. — WILLIAM CRAWFORD WILLIAMSON, LL.D., F.R.S. 99 
about forty-five years ago in a railway carriage, when we were both 
returning from Scarborough. I afterwards went to spend a day with 
him during a visit to my cousin, Mr. James Nasmyth, when he was 
practising as a surgeon in Manchester. He took me to the interest- 
ing deposits of limestone at Ardwick, and showed me the micro- 
scopical sections he had prepared of the teeth and scales of fossil 
fishes. He was then also preparing sections of fossil plants. I had 
never previously seen such sections, and on my return home I pre- 
prepared some myself, and was very soon led to extend the method 
to limestones, slates, and other rocks. He was thus largely instru- 
mental in leading me to develop that subject, which has since grown 
to be so extensive. I think the next time we met was long after, 
when we were the recipients of the Royal Medals of the Royal 
Society." 
Prior to 1870 Williamson's studies were many and varied ; rocks, 
plants, animals and even antiquities. All this work was, however, 
preparatory to his special researches on the minute structure of 
Fossil Go'dl Plants, to which the last twenty-five years of his life were 
devoted with ever-increasing success and clearer insight into the 
character of the ancient Flora, until he became the principal exponent 
of its phenomena to the whole scientific world. 
The early seventies found him engaged in an investigation of 
the Cryptogamic Fruit-spikes of the Coal period. In 1876 he com- 
menced a series of experiments and researches on the structure of 
the Coals of the world. He received for examination numerous 
specimens from the Coal-fields not only of Great Britain, but of New 
Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Japan, Borneo, Sweden, France, 
Germany, Belgium, India, the United States, Nova Scotia and the 
Arctic Regions ; unfortunately these researches were never com- 
pleted. 
The Royal Society in 1874 awarded to him its gold medal in 
recognition of its appreciation of his scientific discoveries. 
In 1880 the appointment of Professor Milnes Marshall to the 
new Chair of Zoology at Owen's College enabled Williamson to con- 
centrate his powers on Botanical subjects alone, to the advantage of 
