ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 135 



reproduction,whileCWm?ra grows at the apice3 and produces lateral 

 branches and fruit-cells distinct from the vegetative part. The 

 name Codiolum, therefore, is a most appropriate one. 



The Anniversary Address of the President, 

 Professor Allman^M.I}., LL.D.,F.E.S. 



Aspects of Vegetation in the Littoral districts of Provence, the 

 Maritime Alps, and the loestern extremity of the Ligurian Riviera : 

 a Chapter in the Physiognomy and Distribution of Plants. 



[Read May 24, 1S80.] 

 Some recent visits made during the spring months to Provence 

 and the Ligurian coast afforded an opportunity of studying the 

 vegetation of these parts of the Mediterranean shores ; and it 

 has occurred to me that some of the notes then made might 

 form an appropriate subject for one of the annual addresses which 

 it is customary to deliver from this chair. 



Separated by the western Alps from Central and Northern 

 Europe, and traversed by the subordinate chains and outlying 

 groups of hills which, belonging to the system of the Maritime 

 Alps, give to its surface the charm of a configuration singularly 

 varied by elevated hills, deep valleys, and low-spreading plains, 

 there lies in the south of Prance a belt of country which, 

 embracing a great part of Provence, has its western limits 

 near Marseilles, and thence stretching along the shores of the 

 Mediterranean includes the districts of Hyeres, Cannes, Nice, and 

 Mentone, and becomes continuous in the east with the Ligurian 

 shores of Italy. 



Nowhere in Europe is there a region which in winter and spring 

 basks under the rays of a more genial sun, where its mountain 

 barriers more thoroughly defend it from the icy wiuds which 

 sweep over the unprotected plains of the north ; and when 

 the season of rains is at an end, there spreads over all this 

 sunny land an atmosphere of absolute transparency ; while 

 away upon its extreme southern boundary lie the waters of the 

 Mediterranean, flowing round wooded crags and picturesque 

 headlands, and gleaming with an intensity of blue approached 

 by that only of the cloudless sky which stretches over all. 



The narrow littoral region thus physically characterized gives 

 origin to a rich and remarkable flora, whose eminently southern 



