George Massee

Abstract

MYCOLOGISTS in all parts of the world will learn with great regret of the death of Mr. G. Massee, which occurred at Sevenoaks, on February 17, after a brief illness. George Edward Massee was born at Scampston, in Yorkshire, about 1850, and at the age of ten was sent to school in York. He early showed a taste for drawing and natural history. At the York School of Art he gained the national medal for the year, and when about seventeen years old published a paper on woodpeckers in the Intellectual Observer. Later he studied botany under Spruce, a relative of his mother. It was intended that he should follow his father's steps as a farmer, but, always ready for adventure, he readily accepted Spruce's suggestion to visit the West Indies and South America. He travelled in both the eastern and western countries of that continent, and, in addition to making botanical collections, sent home living plants in bulk.