LlNNEAN SOCIETY OP LONDON. 3 1 



compounders has, no doubt, been affected by the change in the 

 amount of composition which was made nine years ago, wlien the 

 sum was raised from £30 to £45, in stricter accordance with the 

 actuarial value of the annual payments of the Fellows. We 

 have at present on our roll 297 members who have compounded. 

 For some years it has been the practice to invest one half of the 

 compositions, and we have now, independent of the Bentham 

 bequest, £5700 thus invested. I£ the estimate on which the 

 present composition is based be correct, this sum is less than 

 half what should be invested to cover our responsibilities to the 

 compounders. 



With tiie decrease in the compositions there has been a con- 

 sequent increase in the annual payments. Twenty years ago the 

 Members paying annually were 205, they now amouut to 420; 

 and the revenue from yearly payments has risen correspondingly 

 with the Members from £603 m 1807 to £12S0 in 18S6. Anotiier 

 gratifying item in our revenue is the regularly iucreasing sum 

 accruiug from invested capital. In 1860 we had ouly £8 from 

 this source, year by year it has been creeping up till last year 

 we received £190. 



It is plain, then, that if our work is to be maintaiued, and, yet 

 more, if our usefulness is to be extended, we must secure a con- 

 siderable annual addition to our roll. Our Society exists for the 

 advancement of science, but its Members are not limited to pro- 

 ficients in biology. Were it so our Members and our usefulness 

 would be curtailed. We welcome the friends and patrons of 

 science — the lovers of nature. In their fellowship with us we 

 hope to lead them on to a closer acquaintance with the studies 

 we pursue. Their contributions will increase our means of use- 

 fulness. As science develops and our Society increases, the claims 

 on our funds increase also. 



Before another anniversary comes round we shall have com- 

 pleted the hundredth year of our existence. On the 26th of 

 February, 1788, seven men met in the Marlborough Coffee House, 

 Great Marlborough Street, and held tlie first meeting of the 

 Liunean Society. Dr. Smith, the happy possessor of the Lin- 

 nean collections and library, was placed in the chair, a position 

 which be occupied for the long period of forty years. Dr. Grood- 

 enough, then living at Ealing, was elected Treasurer. He made 

 a careful study of our British Carices, and published the results in 

 a model monograph in the second volume of the Society's Trans- 

 actions. In 1808 he was promoted to the Bishopric of Carlisle, 

 which see he occupied till his death in 1827 ; and so late as 1880 

 his herbarium was presented by the civic authorities of Carlisle to 

 Kew. Mr. Marsham was appointed Secretary. He was a distin- 

 guished entomologist, and commuuicated several papers to the 

 Society which duly found place in the Transactions. Jonas Dry- 

 ander, a distinguished pupil of Liuureus, and successor to Solander 

 as Librarian to Sir Joseph Banks, was, at a subsequent meeting, 



