LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. XVll 



upon this difficult and somewliat distasteful subject, I hope it is 

 unnecessary for me to declare that I have not been actuated by 

 any feeling inconsistent with a full appreciation of, and sincere 

 respect for, those scientific bodies on whose relation to ourselves 

 I have animadverted, and of admiration of the results of their 

 labours. Still less is it possible that I could entertain any feeling 

 of personal or corporate rivalry. Many of the most distinguished 

 members of those very Institutions are our fellow-members here, 

 our personal friends and joint labourers in the same field. Nay, 

 many are at this moment within the hearing of the unpalatable 

 truths which I have felt called upon to utter. But I have consi- 

 dered it right to speak plainly my thoughts upon a matter which 

 has long caused me great anxiety, and to which, perhaps from long 

 pondering upon it, I may have been led to attribute what others 

 may deem a more than deserved importance. 



And now it may be reasonably demanded, after all that has 

 been said on the disadvantages of such divisions as I have been 

 deprecating, supposing all that has been asked to be granted, 

 what means are proposed to meet the difficulty and to obviate the 

 asserted evil ? This is, indeed, a much more perplexing and com- 

 plicated question ; and I am free to confess that I, for one, am 

 not prepared with any immediate practicable remedy. There are, 

 however, some suggestions which have occurred to my mind in re- 

 flecting upon the subject, which, with great diffidence and a deep 

 sense of all the vagueness and obscurity that hangs about them, I 

 will venture to offer. 



In the first place, even acknowledging on the one hand all the 

 evils of the system which I have assumed, these Societies do exist, 

 and have existed long enough to be firmly established. They are 

 working and working with good eflfect. There are honest, truthful, 

 talented, enlightened men engaged in that working. They consti- 

 tute a great and important fact ; — and must be dealt with, if at 

 all, as associate and fellow Institutions with our own. What I am 

 anxious to see is, not their present antagonism, but their union 

 with us, as far as practicable, in such a relation as shall be mutu- 

 ally advantageous. Not as at present, the child taking food from 

 the parent's mouth, — not the sucker depriving the tree from 

 which it springs of its nourishment and growth and strength. 



One of the most obvious means suggesting itself for carrying 

 out this object, is that the Societies in question should, in such 

 manner as they may see best, communicate to the Linnean So- 

 ciety such papers as appear particularly calculated for publication 



LINN. PROO. * 



