108 The President's Address. 



it has doubtless come under your notice. Those of our 

 members who agree in this decision cannot but rejoice that 

 the press generally, as well as many large and influential 

 bodies, have also expressed their disapproval of this inter- 

 ference with the Forest, and for my own part I can only 

 give utterance to the wish that the Eailway Company may 

 be led to reconsider their plan, or to alter the route of the 

 projected extension so as to leave our Forest untouched. 



The remarks made at the commencement of this address 

 with reference to our lack of active science workers will, I 

 trust, be taken in the spirit in which they were offered — 

 the desire to see the Club doing good work and taking a 

 high position among such societies. We are still in our 

 infancy, and too much ought not to be expected from us at 

 first starting. Still, in view of our increasing energy, it is 

 not too soon to begin to consider some of the numerous 

 lines of useful work which we might take up, and I will 

 therefore in conclusion offer a few suggestions which may 

 possibly serve to hasten the production of some of the more 

 solid contributions to science which it should be our ambi- 

 tion to see emanate from this Club. 



In the first place, as regards local catalogues of animals 

 and plants — our County Directory — why should we not 

 commence this next season upon some of the better known 

 orders of insects, such as Lepidoptera or Coleoptera ? Sup- 

 posing we take the former, as having been the more exten- 

 sively worked at. A large amount of material already 

 exists scattered throughout the various British entomo- 

 logical publications, and we should have to commence our 

 list by systematic compilation. That done, we can begin 

 to collect records from our own members, many of whom 

 have long collected in the county; and I would suggest that 

 a circular should be sent round, not only to our members, 

 but also to all entomologists who may have worked our 

 district, asking for their assistance. In the case of the 

 rarer species, the locality, date of capture, and name of 

 captor should be given, together with references if the 

 capture has already been published. Every care should be 

 taken to make our first list a typical one, and w^orkers at 



