LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. xi 



2. " Note on the Embryo of Ancistroeladtis ;" by George Ben- 

 tham, Esq., Pres. L.S., and J. D. Hooker, M.D., V.P.L.S. (See 

 " Botanical Proceedings," vol. vii.) 



May 25, 1863. 



Anniversary Meeting. 



George Benthara, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



This day (the Anniversary of the birth of Linnaeus having fallen 

 on a Sunday), being the day appointed by the Charter for the 

 Election of Council and Officers, the President opened the business 

 of the Meeting with the following Address : — 



Gentlemen, 



It is with great satisfaction that I am again enabled, on meeting you 

 at our annual gathering, to congratulate you upon the steady pros- 

 perity of our Society. Without departing from the rule laid down 

 for the investment of a fair proportion of the compositions received 

 for annual payments, about eighty guineas have been expended in 

 the course of the year in the purchase and binding of books and 

 cataloguing the library ; the usual numbers of the Journal have been 

 published ; and two parts have been issued of our 4to Transactions, 

 containing several papers which are generally admitted to be second 

 to none in om" collection in value and importance. But again I must 

 urge you not to relax in your zealous efforts to maintain and extend 

 the Society's pecuniary resources. Our increasing library, and the 

 continued use of it made by the Fellows, may require additional 

 assistance in its care ; it would be desirable that the Catalogue, the 

 transcription of which in its new form is now completed, should be 

 printed for circulation amongst us ; and there are several works 

 which have been named to the Library Committee, and admitted by 

 them to be desirable purchases, but which they have been obliged to 

 defer for future consideration, as being beyond the means that could 

 be at present allotted to the purpose. With a small but steady in- 

 crease in the Society's income, with the final renunciation of the 

 vain efforts to form a general museum, which I trust you will sanction 

 at your next Meeting, I am confident that, under the liberal regula- 

 tions established for the loan of books, or for their consultation at 



62 



