62 
OBITUARY. 
OBITUARY 
Mrs Edith Vere Dext, O.B.E. (1863-1948). By the deatli on 
October 12, 1948, at the age of 85 of Mrs Edith Vere Dent, wife of 
the late Mr R. W. Bent of Flass, Penrith, the botanical world loses a 
remarkable character. As she herself was ever the first to allow, slie. 
was, in the strict sense of the woi-ds, “ no botanist and yet British 
Botany owes her an inestimable debt for the founding and maintain- 
ing, for over sixty years, of the Wild Flower Society, a society of 
amateur botanists that has contained in its ranks some of the best 
botanists that our country can boast. 
A quarter of a century ago Dr Druce recognised this fact, and 
spoke of the Society as “ the Botanical Nursery,” a title which it has 
l)roudly cherished ever since. To mention but two names: Mr Noel 
Sandwith and jMr John Gilmour both started their botanical careers 
as members of the Wild Flower Society. Lady Davy was an original 
member, and for very long ” Identifier in Chief.” The “ Wild Flower 
Magazine,” the little bi-monthly periodical, first started in 1897, which 
chronicles the Society’s activities, has now published in its 142nd issue 
the death of its beloved foundress. 
Innumerable vice-county records, and much help to the compilers of 
County Floras, have resulted from the activities of the many members, 
and among these should be mentioned the first discovery in Britain of 
Scorzonera humilis L. by jMr Sandwith, and the record from Ben Lawers 
in 1935 of Carex microfilochin Wahl, made by Lady Davy and the 
writer. 
Botanical meetings in London, which became the Conversaziones, 
now the popular Tea Parties, owe their origin to the W.F.S. 
I\Irs Dent was in other ways a very active woman. Her notable ser- 
vices to the British Red Cross were recognised by the aAvard of the 
O.B.E. in 1920, and in all the leading Westmorland activities she took 
a large share. But in the Wild Flower Society in particular her fame 
is perpetuated, and her many hundreds of friends will long cherish her 
memory and mourn her loss. 
Gertrude Foggitt. 
