PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 49 



admirable treatise in the year 1857. Our library contains 

 Mr. Berkeley's book, and will, I trust, soon possess that of 

 Messrs. Bennett and Murray. So many discoveries have been 

 made in this department of knowledge since 1857 by men of 

 European fame, that it would be almost invidious to mention 

 names ; but as three of these Cryptogamists have gone to their 

 rest, I may just remind you how much we owe to the labours of 

 De Bary, M. J. Berkeley, and C. E. Broome. I had the pleasure 

 of being introduced to the Rev. M. J- Berkeley at Llandudno in 

 1870. One of the scientific periodicals, in announcing Berkeley's 

 death, in his eighty-seventh ear, speaks of him as " our greatest 

 authority on Cryptogamic Botany." He was a man of great 

 mental capacity, and a hard worker. In the early part of his 

 career he must have had occasion for all the courage he so 

 admirably displayed. He has left a name that will live in the 

 annals of Cryptogamic Botany, and will ever be associated with 

 that of a former member of our Society, the late Mr. C. E. 

 Broome. May we hope that the laboux-s of these eminent 

 mycologists will not only be appreciated, but will act as incentives 

 to exertion in the same direction amongst some of the younger 

 members of this and kindred Societies, who have yet long years 

 to look forward to in which to perfect the studies they may elect 

 to identify themselves with. 



One of the great charms of a Society like our own, to my 

 mind, is, that owing to the common interest we take in an instru- 

 ment, which has become almost indispensable to students of such 

 sciences as Biology, Botany, Zoology, Geology, and Chemistry, as 

 well as being much resorted to by those who pursue kindred 

 studies, men of very different acquirements and modes of thought 

 are frequently brought together, and enabled, by means of papers 

 and otherwise, to communicate to one another the result of their 

 observations and studies in the various branches of knowledge to 

 which they have given special attention. Such a method of 

 acquiring information has a two-fold advantage. It not only 

 relieves us from the weariness of excessive book-reading, but it 

 engenders an appreciation of the work of others, and a kindly 

 interest in their labours. A former President — my friend, Mr. 

 Norman — only a short time ago gave us such an exhaustive 



Journal of Microscopy and Natural Science. 



New Series. Vol. III. 1890. e 



