W. TYSON, F.L.S. 
By S. SCHONLAND. 
William Tyson was born at Port Royal, Jamaica, in March 1851. His 
father was a Wesleyan missionary. He started the study of Medicine but 
relinquished it in consequence of loss of tactical sensibility in the hand, no 
doubt due to rheumatism which later deformed both his hands, a great handi- 
cap throughout life. He came with his parents to Cape Colony and became a 
teacher, holding successively positions in the S. Afr. College School, Capetown, 
at Kokstad, at Donald Strahan’s place, S. John’s River, then at Dale College, 
Kingwilliamstown. Heresidedfor a time at Kimberley andin 1888 was appointed 
Secretary to the Comte de Yasselot, the head of the Forest Department of 
Cape Colony. About 1893 he left the Forest Department and was attached 
to the Agricultural Department as librarian and sub-editor of the Agricultural 
Journal. In 1904 he was retired on pension and about 10 years ago he began 
to reside at Port Alfred. In September 1919 he proceeded to Coffee Bay on 
the Pondoland coast and returned to Grahamstown in a moribund condition 
in April 1920. He passed away ApriPl3th. 
He was one of the most indefatigable of recent botanical collectors. The 
later volumes of the Flora Capensis bear testimony to the large extent and 
value of his collections. Many new species discovered by him were named 
after him and also one genus, Tysonia (Boraginaceae). The chief stations 
where his collections were made are Port Elizabeth (Ap. — Nov. 1877), Murrays- 
burg (July 1886 — Dec. 1887), Western districts, chiefly Cape Town and Hex 
River (Jan. 1880 — June 1882), Griqualand East and Pondoland (his most 
extensive sets, July 1882 — July 1886), Kingwilliamstown (July 1886 — Dec. 
1887), and in recent years Port Alfred. He disposed of his herbarium to the 
Cape Government Herbarium in 1892, retaining only Marine Algae which he 
continued collecting for a number of years chiefly for the British Museum under 
the direction of Dr George Murray and Miss Ethel Barton who published an 
account of his collections in the Journal of Botany, 1893. The choice of Port 
Alfred as his place of residence during recent years was largely determined by 
the richness of the Marine Algal Flora in its neighbourhood. He prepared 
a number of sets of S. African Marine Algae for sale. Two fascicles each con- 
taining 50 species were issued by him, but circumstances connected with the 
war and probably also increasing infirmity prevented the completion of further 
issues. 
Tyson was very well read. He had a splendid memory for plants and their 
