XV 
COUNCIL FOR 1897. 
Botany. —The list of additions to this Department will be 
found on page xxxii. The valuable gift of the two books which 
belonged to the Rev. James Dalton, F.L.S., is due to the 
kindness of Mrs. S. E. Portman Dalton. Both books contain 
numerous annotations and coloured figures of plants which 
are of great interest to Botanists. In the volume of Galpine’s 
“Compendium” there is the following note in Mr. Dalton’s 
handwriting: “June 21st, 1827. Gave my Herbarium and 
Coleopterous insects to the Philosophical Society of York. 
James Dalton.” This interesting record confirms the date 
mentioned in the Report for 1893 (page 36). Although 
seventy years have elapsed since the Society acquired the 
Herbarium, it is satisfactory to know that it is in good preser¬ 
vation, and that its value will be increased by the addition 
of the books referred to. The catalogue of British plants in 
the Herbarium which has appeared in the Reports for 1894, 
1895, 1896 only represents about a tenth part of the collection, 
and as the majority of the specimens have come from Mr. 
Dalton or his relatives, it will be seen that this Society has 
been highly favoured. As the arrangement of the specimens 
proceeds, a better knowledge of Mr. Dalton’s botanical work 
will be obtained. In the meantime the following prefatory 
remarks regarding the distinguished Naturalist may be found 
interesting. 
James Dalton was born in Swinegate, York, on the 
14th November, 1764. His father, Captain John Dalton, 
H.E.I.C.S., (the gallant defender of Trichinopoly, 1752-53,) 
was one of those enterprizing and heroic pioneers who laid the 
foundation of our commercial and political influence over the 
vast Indian Empire. His mother was second daughter, and 
eventually heiress, of Sir John Wray, 12th Baronet of Glent- 
worth, County Lincoln. James Dalton took his B.A. degree 
at Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1787, and M.A. in 1790. On the 
22nd January, 1789, he was appointed Vicar of Copgrove, 
near Knaresborough, and from this district he recorded many 
rare and interesting plants, one of which, Scheuchzeria palust/is, 
is especially worthy of notice. This rare plant was first found 
in Britain by Mr. Dalton, (in 1787,) at Leckby Carr, near 
Topcliffe, Yorkshire, Owing to the drainage of the Carr and 
