Mr.  William  Carruthers. 
3 
presence,  will  be  so  unfamiliar  to  some  of  us,  we  bid  him 
“ au  revoir.” 
William  Carruthers,  for  nearly  forty  years  Consulting 
Botanist  to  the  Society,  was  born  in  Moffat,  Dumfriesshire,  on 
May  29,  1830.  Educated  at  Moffat  Academy,  he  proceeded 
in  1845  to  Edinburgh  University.  His  University  course, 
being  interrupted  by  two  periods  during  which  he  held 
tutorial  posts,  was  not  completed  till  the  spring  of  1854.  In 
the  autumn  of  that  year  he  went  to  the  New  College,  Edin- 
burgh, to  study  there  with  a view  to  entering  the  ministry 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Under  Dr.  John  Fleming,  the 
Professor  of  Natural  Science,  a naturalist  of  conspicuous 
attainments,  the  bent  which  Mr.  Carruthers  had  already  shown 
for  science  was  strongly  developed.  Prof.  Fleming,  who  was 
an  old  man,  advised  him  to  devote  his  energies  to  science,  with 
a view  to  becoming  his  colleague  and  successor,  and  he 
accordingly  studied  in  the  University  under  Goodsir,  Allman, 
and  Balfour  ; but  in  1858,  before  Mr.  Carruthers’  curriculum 
was  finished,  Prof.  Fleming  died,  and  it  was  out  of  the 
question  to  appoint  a student  to  the  chair.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  forty-five  years  later  Mr.  Carruthers  filled  this 
chair  for  a year  during  a vacancy. 
His  first  position  after  leaving  the  New  College  was  that  of 
Lecturer  on  Botany  in  the  New  Veterinary  College,  Edinburgh. 
A few  months  later  he  became  Assistant  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  and  in  this  capacity  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Dr.  Robert  Chambers,  the  publisher,  which 
led  later  to  his  contributing  the  geological  articles  in  the  first 
edition  of  Chambers'  EncyclopcBdia.  His  earliest  scientific 
paper  (out  of  a total  of  seventy-two  recorded  in  the  Royal 
Society’s  Catalogue)  was  a geological  one,  on  the  graptolites 
found  in  the  rocks  of  his  native  county,  published  in  the 
Transactions  of  the  Royal  Physical  Society  of  Edinburgh. 
In  1859  he  was  offered,  through  Prof.  J.  Hutton  Balfour, 
the  post  of  Assistant  in  the  Department  of  Botany  in  the 
British  Museum,  and  took  up  his  duties  there  in  August 
of  that  year,  the  whole  staff  of  the  department  at  that  time 
consisting  of  his  chief  (Mr.  John  Joseph  Bennett)  and  himself. 
He  thus  definitely  abandoned  the  Church  as  a profession,  and 
devoted  himself  to  science  ; but  it  was  from  no  lack  of 
sympathy  with  the  Church.  Throughout  his  life  his  great 
hobby  has  been  church  history  and  theological  literature. 
In  1871  Mr.  Bennett  retired,  and  Mr.  Carruthers  succeeded 
him  as  Keeper  of  Botany.  His  love  of  geology  had  led  him  to 
devote  much  attention  to  fossil  plants,  and  at  this  time  he 
completed  a study  of  the  structure  of  fossil  cycads,  whose 
