LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. Ixxui 



and plants of any particular country or district ; 2ndly, to supply 

 data to the general naturalist in his investigation of questions of 

 geographical distribution and local influences on individual species 

 or genera, independently of their utility in practical zoology and 

 botany. For the former pui-pose, clearly contrasted characters 

 adapted to local varieties or forms are the great desideratum ; for 

 the second, completeness and, above all, accurate determination and 

 careful comparison with identical or allied forms in adjoining or 

 more distant countries. It is satisfactory, therefore, to observe that 

 authors of the most recent local Faunas and Floras, or enumerations 

 of species, are perceiving the necessity of studying the animals or 

 plants of other countries besides their own ; and the designation of 

 the local habitats of their species is now generally followed by that 

 of their general geographical distribution, which it is to be hoped 

 will be always either founded on actual inspection of specimens or 

 accompanied by a reference to the authority relied on. 



Our Society was chartered for " the cultivation of the Science of 

 Natural History in all its branches, more especially of the Natural 

 History of Great Britain and Ireland ; " but -with regard, at least, 

 to the higher animals and phaenogamic plants of our country, the 

 great and increasing interest taken in them by the paying pubUe 

 leaves us as a Society little or nothing to do. The British quadru- 

 peds, birds, fishes, and the more showy insects, are illustrated in 

 works of great merit; and fresh editions of our standard Floras 

 succeed each other rapidly. It is Httle more than a twelvemonth 

 since the publication of the eighth edition of Hooker's Flora by 

 Ai'nott, and the fifth of Babington's Manual has been issued in the 

 present month ; each one incorporating whatever recent observations 

 may have added to or corrected in the previous ones. In the latter 

 work I particidarly notice that, besides numerous amendments of 

 detail. Prof. Babington has remodelled his synopsis of the natural 

 orders after the plan of the French analytical keys. All notices of 

 new locaKties and enumerations of species observed in local districts 

 would therefore be more useful if communicated to the editors of these 

 works, than if sent to our Society for insertion in our records. It is 

 in the lower orders of animals, and in some branches of Cryptogamic 

 Botany, that much remains to be observed and described before the 

 inhabitants of our island can be said to be well known. Some im- 

 portant contributions have recently appeared, amongst which I would 

 especially notice the History of British Sessile-eyed Crustacea, by 

 Messrs. Spence Bate and Westwood ; the Monograph of British 

 Spiders, by Mr. BlackwaU, the first volume of which has been 



