He was a specialist in bryophytes, cryptogams, fungi and lichens, and wrote extensively on these subjects.
He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and graduated with the MD thesis "Entophytes found on man"[3] in 1851.
He worked as a General Practitioner variously in Radcliffe (near Manchester), Lincoln, Yeadon, Southport and Eccles, but he is remembered for his contributions to botany as an amateur collector and author.
In 1861 he was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1874, his proposers including Joseph Lister.
He is buried in Carlton Hill Cemetery in Brighton.