lx PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
impetus chiefly to his energy and organising skill. The first of these 
is the Cryptogamic Society of Scotland, which held its first annual 
Conference in Perth in the end of September and beginning of 
October, 1875. The Doctor was the Secretary for this Conference, 
and as such had the chief share in carrying out the arrangements for 
what proved to be one of the most extensive and successful exhi¬ 
bitions of fungi and cryptogamic plants ever held in this country. 
I should like to quote just a sentence or two from an account of the 
meeting which appeared in the Gardener’s Chronicle for 9th October, 
1875, from the pen of Mr. Worthington G. Smith, F.L.S., London, 
one of the corresponding members of the Society. Mr. Smith wrote, 
“As for the excellent Secretary, .Dr. F. Buchanan White, . . 
I expected to see the Rannoch Doctor of Medicine like an ordinary 
physician, or at least like the ‘Doctor of Physic’ of the fifth Act of 
Macbeth. Instead of this, Dr. Buchanan White, who lives in the 
historical and almost immediate country of ‘Macbeth,’ is ‘Macbeth’ 
himself of the eleventh century, and wears a grey kilt. Learned, 
hearty, and hard-working, Dr. Buchanan White made his special 
table one of the most instructive in the City Hall.” The use of the 
word “ instructive ” in the last sentence is significant, for it forms the 
key-note of all his work. What he did was not for display, nor for 
amusement, but for the advancement of knowledge. 
Next we come to the East of Scotland Union of Naturalists’ 
Societies, which was the outcome of a Preliminary Meeting held in 
our Lecture Room, on 9th February, 1884, when Dr. Buchanan 
White was chosen as its first President. The first Annual General 
Meeting was held in Dundee on 6th June, 1884, when Dr. White 
delivered his Inaugural Address, and also presented Preliminary 
Reports on certain groups of plants and animals of the East of 
Scotland. The Address contains a most admirable resume of what 
the work and aims of Local Natural History Societies ought to be, 
and how these may be carried out. In the affairs of the Union he 
always continued to take a warm interest, being present at most of 
its annual gatherings. 
The last of the Societies to which I have referred is one which 
was even more closely connected with our own than the other 
two, namely, the Perthshire Mountain Club. Once at least in each 
season it was the custom to have an excursion to the summit of one 
of the more notable Perthshire mountains, and there, in solitary 
state, surrounded only by the weathering rocks, the Chieftain and his 
little band of followers celebrated the Annual Meeting of the Club. 
I have already said how passionately fond he was of Alpine botany, 
and therefore it will be readily understood that he never seemed 
more thoroughly in his element than when striding over the heather- 
clad Grampians in search of Salix herbacea or other mountain rarity. 
For this reason your Council have decided that this little Alpine gem, 
which he chose as the emblem of the Club, shall have a place of 
honour on the bronze tablet about to be erected in the Museum to 
his memory. On this tablet, the daisy, which he selected as the 
emblem of our own Society, will also be represented. 
I had intended to give a brief review of his general scientific 
