Page sixty-two 
THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST 
July, 1952 
— d^tntuarp — 
PROFESSOR T. HARVEY 
JOHNSTON 
By the death on August 30, 1951, of 
Professor Harvey Johnston, Australia lost 
one of its most distinguished and energetic 
zoologists and naturalists, South Australia 
a helminthologistan, a marine and riverine 
biologist, our University its Professor of 
Zoology since 1922, the Royal Society a 
past President and for some years a very 
able Honorary Secretary, and this Section 
a supporter who was always ready to place 
his experiences — in the Antarctic with Sir 
Douglas Mawson; in his journeyings to 
out-of-the-way parts of the world in 
search, eventually succesful, of a parasite 
to control prickly-pear; and on various 
anthropological expeditions into Central 
Australia — at the disposal of the Field 
Naturalists in the shape of well-illustrated 
lectures. His last public act of importance 
was before this Section on August 20 when, 
at our request, he presented, on behalf of 
the Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria, the 
Natural History Medallion for 1951 to 
Mr. B. C. Cotton. On that, and on other 
recent occasions, he was accompanied by 
Mrs. Johnston who kept a watchful eye 
on his activities to reduce as far as possible 
any undue stress. His acquaintance with 
the Australian fauna was very extensive, 
embracing more particularly parasitic 
worms (on which he was a world author- 
ity) and parasitic protozon, the flies respon- 
sible for the blowing of sheep, the insects 
attacking prickly-pear, the marine animal 
life of the Antarctic, and the microscopic 
fauna and flora of the Adelaide water- 
supply. As a colleague and friend of more 
than forty years, standing, who has seen 
his career open out into such varied aven- 
ues of outstanding research as fell to his 
lot, I can speak very appreciatively of his 
scientific attainments, I know his high 
code of ethical behaviour, and I feel great- 
ly the loss of a friend so helpful and so 
considerate on the various expeditions 
when we were associated together. 
— J.B. CLELAND. 
john McConnell black, 
A.L.S. 
J. M. Black’s Flora of South Australia 
is known probably throughout the 
botanical world. It is a textbook in the 
University of Adelaide and almost the 
daily companion of the systematic botan- 
ists of the other States. Part I of the First 
Edition was published in 1922, and the 
concluding Part IV in 1929. Black re- 
examined specimens of every one of the 
species accessible to him so that the de- 
scriptions represent his own individual 
observations. It soon became necessary to 
revise this work, owing to the large num- 
ber of accessions that time and research 
had meanwhile brought to light. Mr. 
Black undertook this arduous task and 
Part I (Second Edition) appeared in 1943, 
and Part II in 1948. Those who have seen 
his anotated copy of his first edition real- 
ises how much work this entailed and how 
thorough the revision was. Towards the 
end of 1951, the Committee responsible 
for the issue of this and the other Hand- 
books of the Flora and Fauna of South 
Australia decided that Part III should be 
concluded somewhere about the Primu- 
laceae or Plumbaginaceae. On the even- 
ing of Saturday, December 1, 1951, Mr. 
Black, then in his 97th year, completed 
the last-named family, leaving several 
Floras open on his table which he had 
ben consulting on the genus S tat ice. He 
rested in bed on Sunday morning and 
after getting up died suddenly early in the 
afternoon. 
