PROCEEDINGS OF THE PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
265 
he served the requisite five years as a pupil-teacher. 
Leaving Forfar, he went to the Free Church Training 
College in Edinburgh, and acquitted himself there with 
distinction. During the time that he was a pupil-teacher, 
and also when he was at the Training College, he every 
year, in the holidays, hired himself out to some neighbour¬ 
ing farmer to do harvest work, and often performed a 
man’s work with the scythe. 
After two years in Edinburgh, Sturrock passed two 
years as assistant in Forfar Academy, which he left for 
Lunan Head School, where he remained three years; and 
then went to study for a while in Aberdeen University. 
From the University he went to take charge of a school at 
Ladybank, in Fife, staying there for three years, when he 
was appointed master of Kattray Parish School, a post 
which he held till his death. “ Pending the appointment 
of teacher to Kattray Parish School” (writes my informant) 
“ which resulted in the presentation of Mr Sturrock to 
that office—he being one of 70 applicants—the parish 
minister, the late Eev. W. Herdman (not the least talented 
of a highly-talented family), being greatly taken with Mr 
Sturrock’s certificates, proceeded along with another 
gentleman to Ladybank, for the purpose of interviewing 
the candidate. Having been asked on his return what he 
thought of the applicant, Mr Herdman replied, ‘ He is a 
real man, one fit to be presented to Her Majesty the 
Queen.’ How thoroughly characteristic of Mr Herdman’s 
critical acumen, and how truly applicable the remark was 
to the subject of it, will be readily admitted by all who 
knew the two men, or by those who had even a slight 
acquaintance with Mr Sturrock." 
Mr Sturrock had a very serious rheumatic illness about 
ten years ago. This was brought on by his brave endea¬ 
vours to save the lives of two of his pupils who were 
drowned, and it is to be feared that his constitution never 
really recovered from the effects of this heroic act. He 
passed away, after an illness of three weeks, on the 13tb of 
March, deeply regretted by all who knew him. He has 
left a widow and seven children. 
I have not been able to ascertain whether Abram Stur¬ 
rock showed any scientific tastes till he came to Kattray. 
It seems, however, probable that he had not turned his 
attention in the direction of science till his appointment to 
Eattray School, and that it was by Mr Herdman’s advice 
that he took up botany. Mr Herdman (who was one of 
our members) was a good botanist, one of that class of 
parish ministers (of whom, unfortunately, we have very few 
iD Perthshire at the present day) who interest themselves 
in the botany of their parishes, and of whom, along with 
Mr Herdman, the Eev. Dr Barty of Bendochy, Eev. Dr 
Stevenson of Coupar- Angus, and at a former period, the 
Eev. Mr Liston of Eedgorton, and Eev. Mr M'Eitchie of 
Cluny, were conspicuous examples. Mr Herdman urged 
Sturrock to study botany. “But where shall I begin?" 
said Mr Sturrock. “Begin!” exclaimed the minister, 
“Why, parse the Lochee Brae” (a piece of common at 
the schoolhouse door). And that he “ parsed ’’ that and 
all the district round, we, his fellow-labourers, well know. 
At what date I had first had the pleasure of meeting Mr 
Sturrock I am not sure. The Society had an excursion to 
Craighall on 2nd July, 1874, and this was very probably 
the first occasion on which we met. He was elected a 
member of the Society on December 2nd, 1875, and was a 
member of the Council from March, 1883, to March, 1885. 
The special class of plants to which Mr Sturrock directed 
his attention for several years was the aquatic. He was 
probably led to do this by, iD conjunction with the late Mr 
Kobb, discovering in Loch Cluny the JYaias flexilis, a plant 
at that time known only, so far as the British Isles are con¬ 
cerned, as an inhabitant of one lake in Ireland. This 
discovery was made on August 13th, 1874, and that day 
may be said to have inaugurated the long and successful 
series of explorations of the lakes of the district, which Mr 
Sturrock carried out, and which resulted in the discovery of 
several plants with which his name will be for ever 
associated. 
In the neighbourhood of Blairgowrie, and between 
that place and Dunkeld, there are about a dozen small 
lochs. That the margins and waters of some of these 
were rich in plants had been well known for a long time. 
But that they were anything like so rich as they are was 
not suspected till Mr Sturrock began a systematic investi¬ 
gation of them. Most patiently did he work them over 
and over again till he had become thoroughly acquainted 
with their contents. Now, it must be remembered that 
aquatic botanising is a much more laborious proceeding 
than terrestrial plant-hunting, and that to work a lake 
successfully requires a large amount of perseverance under 
difficulties. But such perseverance meets with its reward, 
and part of Sturrock’s reward was the discovery of two 
plants which have been named after him—the Potamogeton 
Sturrockii and the Chara fragilis, var. SturrocJiii. The 
natural orders to which these plants belong were especial 
favourites of Mr Sturrock, and it is amongst them that 
his best work was performed, and his chief discoveries 
made. Many of the species belonging to these orders are 
exceedingly closely related, but by dint of hard study our 
friend had made himself very well acquainted with them, 
and I believe that no other botanist in Scotland had any¬ 
thing like a similar knowledge. I may add that his 
