LINXEAN SOCIETY OF L01!TD0N. 29 



bequests to increase tlie capital of this most important fund. I 

 hope that the action of the Council will meet with the cordial 

 approval of, and a generous response from, the Fellows. The 

 additions to the Library during the past year have been made at 

 an expense of £140, and a further sum of £82 has been spent in 

 binding. The Library lias been further increased by gifts. As a 

 memorial of our late Fellow, Mr. Arthur Grote, Ins daugliter, 

 Mrs. Stirling, generously presented 200 volumes, 100 pamphlets, 

 and a number of maps. The Reports of the ' Challenger ' Ex- 

 pedition have been presented by the Grovernment ; the Royal 

 Society gave us 16 volumes from the duplicates in their library, 

 which were desiderata in ours; and our Treasurer has presented 

 to us several volumes. From Sir Greorge MacLeay we have re- 

 ceived a large collection of manuscripts and scientific corre- 

 spondence formerly belonging to his father Alexander MacLeay, 

 who was Librarian to our Society in the years 1796-7, and after- 

 wards Secretary from 1798 till 1824. To various Fellows, authors, 

 and publishers we are indebted for the presentation of numerous 

 volumes. Through exchange the Library is largely increased by 

 the publications of Scientific Societies over the world. So many 

 years of great activity in the Library have passed since the 

 catalogue was published that it now gives but a faint, I ought 

 rather to say a misleading, notion of tlie value of the Library, 

 and affords little help to the Fellows in consulting it. The pre- 

 paration of a new catalogue for the press is hindered only by the 

 heavy expense its production would entail, and the necessary 

 alienation for this object of funds which would more accomplish 

 the primary duty of the Society when devoted to the publication 

 of original memoirs by its Fellows. 



It has been found that the printed catalogue of the Library, 

 in which the Linnean books are indicated by a prefixed old 

 English capital L, does not contain a record of all the volumes 

 in our possession which belonged to Linn^us. Dr. Murie is 

 consequentl}'^ engaged in the preparation of a complete catalogue 

 of these volumes. He has also in hand the arranging the wliole 

 of the manuscripts and scientific correspondence of Linnaeus, and 

 though the work is far from complete, much benefit has already 

 been derived from this important undertaking. 



Our now extensive and valuable collection of portraits of 

 natui'alists has been added to by the gift of a water-colour portrait 

 of the Rev. William Kirby, the entomologist, from Sir George 

 MacLeay, and an oil-jjainting of Francis Masson, one of the early 

 explorers of the vegetation of South Africa, and a Fellow of this 

 Society elected in 1796, which 1 had the pleasure of securing for 

 the Society. Mrs. Stirling presented a photograph of Dr. Sto- 

 liczka, the Indian naturalist ; Mr. Fookes an engraving of T. A. 

 Knight, a Fellow of this Society, and one of the founders of the 

 Horticultural Society ; and Mr. Crisp an engraving of Sir 

 Richard Owen. 



