LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 89 



the various observers. To all, the interval between our own day 

 and the glacial period is, as we express time, very great, though 

 small relatively to the history of the globe. It must, however, 

 be admitted to represent an appreciable fraction of the time that 

 has elapsed since we meet with the first record of Dicotyledonous 

 plants in the Earth's strata. As we have seeu, the plants con- 

 stituting our British Flora then possessed all the characters 

 which are now used to distinguish tliem as independent species. 

 JTor instance, the somewhat miuitte peculiarities which sepai'ate 

 Salix 2?olaris, Wahlen., from SaJix herlacea, Linn., were present 

 in the specimens of these plants which gi-ew in glacial times in 

 Britain, and they liave not been added to or even intensified in 

 the living ])lants of the two species, tliough the changed physical 

 environments have driven the one north within the Arctic Circle, 

 and the other to the tops of our higher mountains. And what is 

 true of the two Salices is true of all tlie other plants which have 

 hitherto been discovered in the glacial beds. The mosses and 

 ferns, the gymnosperms and angiosj)ern)s exhibit the same 

 characters, without reduction or moditicatiou, which their living 

 descendants possess. 



Sir Joseph Hooker then moved the following resolution, 

 viz. : — " That the thanks of the Society be given to the President 

 for his excellent Address, and that he be requc^sted to allow it to be 

 printed." This having been seconded by Mr. H. T, Staiuton, was 

 carried unanimously. 



The Linnean Gtold Medal. 



The Linnean Gold Mednl for the year was presented to Prof 

 Thomas Henry Huxley ; the President addressing him as 

 follows : — 



It has added greatly to the honour which the Fellows did me 

 in placing me in this Chair, that during the period of its tenancy 

 the Society has founded the Linnean Medal and permitted me 

 already to place three of these medals in the hands of as many 

 leaders of science, who have been at the same time most honoured 

 members of our Society. And now it is a great satisfaction to 

 me to present to you, as the last of my official acts, this Linnean 

 Medal which has been awarded to you by the Couucil of the 

 Society in recognition of your eminent services to Biological 

 science. 



For the past forty years your investigations into organisms of 

 every class of the Animal Kingdom have been numerous and 

 important. Not only have the details of structure which you 

 have worked out added immensely to general knowledge, but your 

 philosophical interpretations and deductions from the structure 

 and development of the oi'ganisms you have investigated have 

 illuminated every department of Biology. 



