li PnoOEEDINGS OF THE 



Dr. KENDiiE reiid a coinniiinicutiou froiii Prof. Giovanni 

 li.VTTi.STA Dk To.n], F.M.L.-S., entitled " a Contribution to the 

 Tenitolo^'y of tin; (ienus Datura L."' 



A discussion ensued, in wliicli Mr. AV. \i. Dykes, I^t.-Col. J. H. 

 Tull Walsh, and Dr. (J. C. Druce took part. 



Capt. J. liAM.siiOTXo.M then s|)oke on a oolleclioni of Mucedoniau 

 plants niade by various members ol" 11. M. Salonika Forces. The 

 iirst numbers gathered in the autumn ot 1917 proved of great 

 interest, and the preliminary idea of making as complete a 

 collection as possible \\as therefore persisted in. An attempt 

 was made to direct the interest in Natural History subjects that 

 was encountered when giving talks on Botany in hospitals and 

 T.M.CA. huts. Use was also made of the ' Balkan News,' the 

 daily paper published for the troops, in order to point out the 

 great value of a proper investigation of the flora of Macedonia 

 and also to give full directions as to how best to collect and to 

 dry plants. Permission was obtained from the Commander-in- 

 Chief to hold a plant-collecting competition amongst Warrant 

 Officers, non-commissioned Officers, and men, the conditions of 

 the competition being published in General Koutine Orders, and 

 thus reaching every member of the Force. 



The result of the competition, having regard to the hazards of 

 active service, was satisfactoiy, as it also had the eii'ect of cen- 

 tralizing effort and attracting a considerable number of other 

 collectors. 



The districts in which the principal collectors were stationed 

 were indicated on a map, and lantern-slides were show n illustrating 

 the different types of country met with in Macedonia. 



Mr. A. J. WiLMOTT, who followed, pointed out that the main 

 interest of the collection, apart from the value of the material 

 from this little-known region, lay in the features of endemism 

 which the Macedonian flora exhibited. Endemics are said to be 

 both numerous and abundant, which seems to be true so far as 

 one can judge in a poorly explored area. It was suggested that 

 one of the tirst duties of the student of distribution should be to 

 discover and delineate natural tloristic areas, the next duty being 

 to convert taxonomists to using them. It must be emphasized 

 that the general custom of using political boundaries completely 

 obscures the essential facts and is entirely unnecessary, since all 

 areas whose floristic relations are doubtful can be kept separate 

 until their flora is known, when the relationshi])s should be 

 obvious. To draw no distinction between localities in Bulgaria 

 nortii of the Balkan ridge and those (in "Thrace") south of it, 

 does not permit, distriliutional features to be obvious unless one 

 is very well acquainted with the topography of the country. 

 Natural areas in the Balkans were shown on a sketch-map. 

 Further, the ultimate topographical sul)divisions should be two- 

 fold, one by river basijis for lowland species, the other by hill 



