sKssiox 1896-97. Ivii 



Society is also imlebtod to Prince Kropotkin for delivering; the 

 Anniversary Address, the President having been nuablc to do so 

 from ill-liealth. 



The eighth volume of the present series of the Society's ' Trans- 

 actions ' has been completed, and the ninth has been commenced, 

 three parts of each, containing 220 pages and 10 plates, having 

 been published during the year. Four-fifths of the papers in the 

 eighth volume are of local interest. The Meteorology and Phen- 

 ology of Hertfordshire are treated of in ten papers, the usual eight 

 annual reports (on the rainfall, climatology, and phenology of the 

 County, and on the meteorology of St. Albans, each for two years), 

 an account of the floods of November, 1894, and a notice of the 

 gale of the 24th of March, 1895 ; the Botany is represented by 

 a paper on the Mycetozoa, 'svith a list of species from Herts, Beds, 

 and Bucks ; the Entomology by annual reports on the Lcpidoptera 

 observed, and by a paper on the "wasp infestation of 1893 ; and the 

 Ornithology by the usual annual reports on the birds observed, 

 and by a paper on birds frequenting the neighbourhood of Herons- 

 gate. One of the Anniversary Addresses, on the Stone Age in 

 Hertfordshire, and two papers on hard and soft water, with 

 special reference to the supply of Watford, complete the local 

 papers, twenty in all, to which may be added miscellaneous notes 

 on Meteorology and Entomology. The papers which do not relate 

 to Hertfordshire are five in number; a lecture on the Bronze Age, 

 an Anniversary Address on Man (the title being " A Wonderful 

 Animal"), and papers on the lower micro-organisms, on the egg 

 of the frog, and on the natural histoiy of the -salmon. The only 

 paper published in the ' Proceedings ' is a report on the Conferences 

 of Delegates to the British Association at Oxford in 1894, in which 

 is pointed out work which may be done by members of the Society 

 in assisting Committees of the British Association, 



The volume is illustrated by the unusually large number of 

 sixteen plates, and by eight other illustrations. Seven of the 

 plates, representing bronze and stone implements, are reju-ints 

 from woodcuts kincUy lent by Sir John Evans and Mr. Worthington 

 Smith, and nine were produced from photographs at the expense of 

 the Society. The photographic illustration of the lieports of the 

 Field Meetings has been continued in this volume, eight photo- 

 gi-aphs taken by your Editor being reproduced on four of the plates. 

 Three plates are original process-reproductions from photographs 

 of the actual objects, and your Editor believes that in these plates 

 the haK-tone process has for the first time been successfully 

 employed in showing flint implements and lining plasmodium of 

 a Mycetozoon. 



Owing chiefly to more expense than usual having been incurred 

 on the * Transactions,' six parts ha^-ing been issued with an 

 unusually large number of illustrations, the expenditure during 

 the year has been greater than the receipts, the balance being less 

 at the end than at the beginning of the year ; but in the present 

 year not more than four parts of the ' Transactions ' will be issued, 



VOL. IX. — PART VIII. E 



