112 The Irish Naturalist. June, 
tuaries, &c. ; and in the National Trust we have a body 
equipped with the necessary authority to take over and 
safeguard such gifts of land as may be made by public 
enterprise or private liberality. Much has already been 
accomplished in this direction by certain societies and 
individuals ; but all students and lovers of nature generally 
are now invited to combine in support of the Society for 
the Promotion of Nature Reserves. 
This Society has recently been formed with the following 
objects : — 
1. To collect and collate information as to areas of 
land in the United Kingdom which retain their primitive 
conditions and contain rare and local species liable to ex- 
tinction owing to building, drainage, and dis afforestation, 
or in consequence of the cupidity of collectors. All such 
information to be treated as strictly confidential. 
2. To prepare a scheme showing which areas should be 
secured. 
3. To obtain these areas and hand them over to the 
National Trust under such conditions as may be necessar\^ 
4. To preserve for posteritj' as a national possession 
some part at least of our native land, its fauna, flora, and 
geological features. 
5. To encourage the love of Nature, and to educate 
public opinion to a better knowledge of the value of Nature 
study. 
The society exacts no subscription ; members are for- 
mally elected by invitation of the Executive Committee 
(marked with * below), and all interested are invited to 
communicate with the secretaries. The control of the 
society's affairs is in the hands of a representative council 
consisting at present of the following : — 
President, the Right Hon. J. W. Lowther, m.p. Dr. 
L Bay ley Balfour, f.r.s.. Sir Edward H. Busk, vSir Francis 
Darwin, f.r.s., Dr. F. D. Drewitt, *G. Claridge Druce, 
Professor J. BretJand Farmer, f.r.s., L. Fletcher, f.r.s., 
the Right Hon. Sir Edward Grey, Bt., k.g., m.p., the Right 
Hon. L. V. Harcourt, m.p., *vSir Robert Hunter, k.c.b., 
Lord Lucas, *E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, *the Hon. E. S. 
