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WTLLIAM RAMSAY M'NAB. 51
Dr. Hackel gives the follomng description :— " Dififert a typo panicula
depauperata, ramo primario imo trispiculato, secundario 1-2spiculato
(ut in F. fratensi, a qua differt foliorum structura,
formaque spicularum) " ;
and adds, " It would be very desirable for
you to cultivate this doubtful plant, as only then can we learn
whether it is worth while to give it a special name. In any case
it is very near the F. arundinacea subv, strictior. Hack. Monogr." I
gathered a plant, not far off, which is assigned to this subvariety,
answering to the figure of " F. elatiur a. genuina " in Syme, E. B.
(_/it?e Hackel, 1. c, p. 154). Its description is :— "Laminae angustiores
(3-5 mm. lat.) et breviores, rigid^e, siccando subconvoluts,
ligulte manifestiores, Panicula brevior (usque 15 cm. Ig.), stricta,
vix nutans, ramis patulis strictis, post anthesin contracta. Spiculae
precedentis [i. e., " subvar. vulgaris "]
As I may not soon revisit the neighbourhood, I think it better
to publish the form in question, in the hope that a local botanist
may further investigate the matter. My knowledge of F. ariindinacea
does not warrant any definite opinion.
In conclusion, I beg leave to acknowledge my great obligation
to Prof. Hackel, and to thank the staff at the Natural History
Museum for help in looking out references, &c.
WILLIAM RAMSAY McNAB.
William Ramsay McNab, M.D., who died in Dublin very suddenly
of heart disease, on December 3rd, 1889, was born on the 9th of
November, 1844, in Edinburgh, where his grandfather and father
in succession held office as Curators of the Botanic Garden.
Dr. McNab obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the
University of Edinburgh when 22 years of age. Even while an
undergraduate he was appointed assistant to the late Professor
Balfour, who then held the Edinburgh Botanical Cliair ; he also
studied botany under Professors Brauu and Koch, and pathological
anatomy and histology under Professor Virchow in Berlin.
After three years of medical practice he was appointed to the
Professorship of Natural History in the Royal Agricultural College,
Cirencester, and thenceforth devoted himself entirely to botany.
Two years later he succeeded to the Chair of Botany in the Royal
College of Science, Dublin, which he held until his death. Tlie
position of Scientific Superintendent of the Royal Botanical
Gardens was created for hiui by the Science and Art Department
in 1880. He was Consulting Botanist and Entomologist to the
Royal Dii])lin Society, Extern Examiner in liotany, Victoria
University, and was in 1888 appointed Swiney Lecturer on Geology
in the British Museum. In 1877 he became a Fellow of the
Linncan Society.
Professor McNab made numerous contributions to science,
especially on the morphology and ])hysiology of plants. The Royal
Society's ' Catalogue of Scientific Papers ' enumerates 33 of these,
published between 180G and 1875, and he continued to add to tlicir
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