7d PRIXJEEDINGS OF THE 



spite of all those difticulties whicli s])ar us on to further research, 

 that ill JJotany, as in Zoology, the doctrine of evolution rests at 

 present juost securely on a pal.'contological foundation. 



Mr. llEMiy (jrUOYES then moved: — "That the President be 

 thanked for his excellent Address, and that he be requested to 

 allow it to be printed and circulated amongst the Fellows," which 

 being seconded by Prof. M. C. Potter, was adopted by acclama- 

 tion, and acknowledged by the President. 



The President, then addressing llerr E.mil IIvitfeldt, Secretary 

 of the Norwegian Legation, said : — 



Professor Georg Ossian Sars is the distinguished son of a 

 distinguished father, the late Professor Michael Sars having been 

 one of the pioneers of deep-sea dredging ; it was he who laid the 

 foundations of our knowledge of the deep-sea J'auna. 



Professor Georg ISars, following and extending the same lines 

 of investigation, has long been recognized by his fellow-workers 

 in all parts of the globe as a distinguished leader and guide. Por 

 nearly half a century his successive writings have been shedding 

 light on the class of Crustacea in its different branches. Almost 

 at the outset of his career he succeeded in rescuing a difficult 

 group from the obscurity and confusion in which it had been 

 previously involved. Experts have over and over again paid his 

 systems of classification the supreme compliment of adopting 

 them. His instructive essays on the larval Decapoda, founded on 

 an ingenious but toilsotne plan of investigation, would have 

 sufficed alone to make a considerable reputation. 



After showing his command of languages by treatises in Latin, 

 French, and German, besides his native Norwegian, he has obliged 

 us by adopting the English tongue for several important volumes. 

 Above all, his ready pencil, in an almost miraculous number of 

 scientific illustrations, has used an idiom whicli every nation can 

 read with facility. 



The carcinologists of Great Britain, I am informed, have special 

 reason to rejoice that in Prof. Sars's crowning work on ' The 

 Crustacea of Norw^ay,' already containing 756 plates, by a fortu- 

 nate coincidence, the fauna of their own country finds illuminating 

 treatment. 



All who have been privileged to be in communication with him, 

 praise the courteous readiness with which he renders the assistance 

 they desire, nor can anyone explore his writings without admiring 

 the entire absence of unkindly criticism, and the generous 

 acknowledgment of merit in the work of other students. 



It is eleven years since we had the honour of enrolling 

 Prof. 8ars among our Foreign Members. It is now m}^ agreeable 

 duty, in recognition of the world-wide reputation which he has 

 acquired, to present him, through your kind mediation, with the 

 Linnean Medal, as a token of our highest esteem. 



