DUBLIN UNIVERSITY ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL ASSOCIATION. 205 



This being the last meeting for the Session 1856-57 — 



The Chairman, W. H. Harvey, M.D., F.L.S., Vice-President, read 

 the following 



ADDRESS. 



"With: this evening's meeting the present Session terminates. We sepa- 

 rate, each to his home, to occupy ourselves in various ways until October 

 shall bring us once more within these walls to resume our winter stu- 

 dies. In dismissing you now, I wish to make a few observations con- 

 nected with our future progress ; and here I would first observe that the 

 advancement of this Association mainly depends on the way in which 

 its members employ their vacations. It is at this season of the year 

 that Nature presents us with the greatest number of objects, whether in 

 the animal or vegetable kingdom, in their greatest state of activity, and 

 most accessible for examination. At this season, also, you have much 

 more leisure for pursuits of this kind, — longer days and finer weather, — 

 uninterrupted by the College studies which occupy so much of your time 

 in the short days and long nights of winter. This, then, is the proper 

 season for making observations in the field, which shall furnish us with 

 subjects for interesting discussion when we next meet; or for those dis- 

 coveries which shall advance our knowledge of the natural productions 

 of Ireland. 



When this Association was first established, it was proposed that it 

 should consist of thirty-two members, one for each of the Irish coun- 

 ties, and each to be considered as the representative of some particular 

 county, to the exploration of which he should particularly direct his 

 attention. Could this plan have been carried out as far as its originators 

 designed, and had our representative naturalists been duly attentive to 

 their duties, we should have rapidly got together material on which to 

 base a Natural History of the whole island. The plan was excellent on 

 paper, but has not been found as yet very applicable in practice. Many 

 of the counties continue unrepresented, and information from others 

 comes in slowly and in a very desultory manner. 



How can this be remedied ? How can we best carry out the objects 

 for which we enjoy possession of this room, and the other privileges al- 

 lowed us by the University ? It is vain to prescribe exact districts to 

 the members ; and we must only hope that chance or inclination will 

 disperse them, and that, when so scattered over the country, they will 

 not neglect the opportunities at their command. There is much still to 

 be done in every department of Natural History in Ireland ; many of 

 our most interesting districts have only been partially explored by the 

 botanist. In the West and South I have no doubt that new plants will 

 yet reward a careful research ; while several midland districts, and some 

 of the northern, particularly the county of Donegal, remain almost un- 

 noticed. I speak chiefly now of phaenogamous botany ; if we turn to 

 the Cryptogamia, every district will supply abundant work to the stu- 

 dent, and particularly among the Fungi, a vast class that has scarcely 

 yet begun to be studied in Ireland. 



vol. rv. 2 e 



