Ill 



16.— A^^NIVEESAEY ADDEESS. 



By the President, JOHN EVANS, F.R.S., F.S.A., F.G.S., etc, 



[Delivered at the Annual Meeting, 10th February, 1876.] 



Labies and Gentlemen, — 



It now becomes my duty, as President of this Society, to offer 

 you a few remarks by way of address, and I must express niy 

 regret that, owing to other occupations, I have really not had time 

 to prepare anything that will be worthy of your acceptance. I 

 must therefore beg of you to excuse me if in the remarks I address 

 to you I seem to repeat observations I have already made at the 

 opening meeting of this Society. 



Before proceeding further, I must congratulate the Society upon 

 its successfid entry into life and into business. "We number some- 

 thing like 150 members, and our finances are in a satisfactory con- 

 dition. It is true that our income is not much in excess of our 

 expenditure, but still you must bear in mind that in the fii'st year 

 of the existence of any society there are a certain number of 

 expenses which are not Kkely to be repeated at subsequent periods, 

 and I therefore think the position so far as regards the pecuniary con- 

 dition of our Society is good. We have held nine evening meetings 

 since our commencement, and have also attempted to hold a fair 

 number of field meetings, which, owing to the unfortunate 

 weather that prevailed upon the days selected, we were not in all 

 cases able to carry out. 



The papers on various subjects which have been read during the 

 past year have already been enumerated in the Eeport of the 

 Council. We have had, in the fij-st place, geological papers from 

 Mr. Lobley, Professor Morris, and Mr. Whitaker. That from Mr. 

 Lobley was an interesting account of the "Cretaceous Eocks of 

 England," in which we are here more especially interested; and that 

 of Professor Morris was on the " Geology of the London Basin," 

 also one of our neighbours. Mr. Whitaker' s paper was " A List of 

 Works on the Geology of Hertfordshire," and therefore of great 

 value to those who are likely to investigate what has been written 

 on the subject. In Botany, we have had some valuable papers from 

 Mr. Cottam, on the "Flora of the Watford District;" and from Mr. 

 E. A. Pry or, " Notes on a proposed re-issue of the Flora of Hert- 

 fordshire," and also on the "Botanical Work of the past Season." 



VOL. I. — PT. V. 9 



