liv PEOCEEDINGS, 



E.EPOE.T OF THE CoTJNCIL FOE THE YeAK 1896. 



In presenting the twenty-second Annual Eeport the Council 

 of the Hertfordshire l^atural History Society regrets to have to 

 announce a considerable falling oif in the number of members, due 

 chiefly to two causes — the small number of members elected during 

 the year, and the large number removed from the list for non- 

 payment of subscription. A greater number than in any previous 

 year have also been lost to the Society by death. On the other 

 hand, it is satisfactory to be able to state that, although the 

 attendance at the evening meetings has sometimes been small, 

 all the field meetings have been most successful, both as regards 

 the number taking part in them and the pleasure which has evi- 

 dently been derived from them. With the exception of the field 

 meeting which took place in July, at which time of the year from 

 several causes the attendance is usually small, the number of 

 members and their friends attending the field meetings was never 

 less than thii'ty. 



During the year five ordinary members have been elected, one 

 honorary member, and one corresponding member ; one member 

 has compounded for his annual subscription ; seven members have 

 resigned; twenty-one have been removed from the list for non- 

 payment of subscription for several years ; and the Council regrets 

 to have to record the loss of ten members by death — one honorary 

 member, Mr. Isaac Brown ; four life members. Dr. Alfi-ed T. Brett, 

 Mr. Francis Lucas, Miss Georgiana E. Ormerod, and Mr. J. Hack 

 Tuke ; and five annual subscribers, Mrs. Ackworth, Colonel Capell, 

 Mr. Stephen Salter, Mr. W. T. Stone, and Mr. Henry Warner. 

 This list includes two who died before 1896, Mr. Isaac Brown and 

 Mrs. Ackworth, but their deaths had not been ascertained when 

 the previous annual report was presented. 



The census of the Society at the end of the years 1895 and 1896 

 was as follows : — 



1895. 1896. 



Honorary Members 17 17 



Corresponding Members 2 3 



Life Members 51 48 



Annual Subscribers 181 152 



251 220 



Mr. Isaac Brown was doubtless best known to the members of 

 this Society as one of the chief contributors to the first Flora of 

 the County, the ' Flora Hertfordiensis ' of Webb & Coleman, 

 having been, during the time that he resided at Hitchin, Mr. 

 Coleman's most valued coadjutor. His favourite study, however, 

 was Astronomy ; and for twenty-two years, while Principal of the 

 Friends' Flounder's Institute at Ackworth in Yorkshire, he kept 

 a meteorological register. He was a Fellow of the Royal Astro- 

 nomical Society for forty-four years, and of the Royal Meteoro- 

 logical Society for forty-five years. He presented his botanical 

 library and herbarium to the Hertfordshire Natural History Society 



