XYl PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



were the power by which the separate bodies are moved, concen- 

 trated into one great machine. 



In Botanical Science this distribution of the means of recording 

 discovery has not been thought necessary ; and it would certainly 

 appear somewhat strange if we were to hear of the formation of a 

 Eanunculaceous Society, as distinguished from a Liliaceous, or even 

 a Ciyptogamic as independent of, and antagonistic to, a Phanero- 

 gamic Society. Yet, viewed with relation to the true principles 

 of classification, there appears to be no more incongruity in these 

 absurd examples, than in the separation of the Entomologists from 

 other cultivators of Natural History, and still m.ore, the subdivi- 

 sion of the former into Coleopterists and Lepidopterists, and the 

 latter into as many branchlets as there are groups in the gTeat 

 order of scaled-winged insects. 



In the vegetable kingdom, the Linnean Society is the main 

 recipient of contributions to that important branch of natural 

 science in this country ; and I rejoice as heartily as the most ex- 

 clusive votary at the shrine of Flora, at the vigorous strides which 

 that charming science is making, and at the high character of the 

 papers in that department of Natural History which appear in 

 our own publications. I feel it to be matter of honest congratu- 

 lation, that the Society has been so long, and still continues to be, 

 the medium of thus contributing to the diifusion of botanical 

 knowledge throughout the world. It is not because I have been 

 led more particularly into the study of animal existences, that I 

 can have any wish to see Zoology occupy an undue or predominant 

 situation in our proceedings here. It would ill become me, in 

 the position in which you have done me tbe honour to place me, 

 to exhibit or to feel any partiality for either. Not Dido herself 

 could have uttered with more sincerity than I do, " Tros Tyriusve 

 mihi nullo discrimine agetur." It Las, I hope, been the guiding 

 principle of my conduct, certainly of my intentions, since I have 

 occupied this chair ; but I cannot but consider it most desirable 

 and important that a Society like ours, professedly devoted equally 

 to the two branches, and with all the machinery necessary for the 

 equal promotion of both, should not Lave its means curtailed, and 

 its usefulness impaired in relation either to one or the other. 

 The relative number of contributions to our Society during the 

 past year in the two departments, exclusive of statements of 

 isolated facts, or passing and ephemeral subjects, gives force to 

 my present appeal, and shows the reality of my complaint. 



In the remarks which I have considered it my duty to make 



