LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDOX. 29 



Anahathra pr(7t7i«>TtHirt, a Lycopod with secondary growth in 

 thicknesss, was another fossil investigated by AV^itham, who, how- 

 ever, did not attempt to determine its afKDities. " Whatever, 

 therefore, may be the family to which the plant in question is 

 ultimately referred, it is necessary to institute a provisory genus 

 for its reception " (p. 42). He fully satisfied himself of the 

 existence of medullary rays, a point about which very unnecessary 

 difficulties were raised at a much later date. 



Witham was a modest author. He writes : " My pretentions 

 to botanical knowledge are indeed very limited, nor do I presume 

 to rank myself among the cultivators of a science to whicli so 

 many eminent individuals have devoted themselves in this country. 

 The only object I have al\va3rs kept steadily in view, is to direct 

 their attention to a department of botany which has hitherto been 

 too much neglected ; for, although the study of the external 

 forms of the stems, leaves and fructification, of recent vegetables, 

 has elicited much knowledge respecting the nature of the former, 

 little has been effected by an application to their internal com- 

 position, in which decided and characteristic differences are never- 

 theless to be found. It is by the recently discovered method 

 of cutting and polishing the stems of fossil plants that we are 

 enabled to obtain an insight into their structure." * Witham was 

 deeply impressed with the importance of the work which he was 

 undertaking, and showed a serious and almost religious enthusiasm 

 which we cannot but respect. 



The few fragments from the earlier history of a modern branch 

 of science which I have ventured to recall to your memories are 

 of interest as showing that the problems before the investigators 

 of those days were essentially the same as our own, and that the 

 spirit in which they approached them is one wdiich we may well 

 emulate. The birth of Geology is one of the most interesting 

 events in the history of science, and forms an integral part, as 

 Prof. Judd has recently so well shown, of the History of Evolution. 

 The spirit of Evolution was already in the air, and we, in post- 

 Darwin days, find ourselves in complete sympathy with the work 

 that was going on in palaeontology at a time when the ' Beagle ' 

 had scarcely started on her momentous voyage. 



The President, having delivered his Address, Lieut.-Col. Puain 

 moved : — 



" That the President be thanked for his excellent Address, and 

 that he be requested to allow it to be printed and circidated 

 amongst the Fellows," which being seconded by Prof. F. W. 

 OiiiYER, was carried by acclamation. 



* ' Internal Structure of Fossil Ycgetcables,' pp. 1-2. 



