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24.— ANNIVEESARY ADDEESS. 



By tbe rRESiDENT, ALFRED T. BRETT, M.D. 



[Delivered at the Annual Meeting, 13th February, 1879.] 



Ladies ass Gentlemen, — 



The time has now come round at which it is my duty and my 

 privilege to deliver the annual address. I think that I cannot 

 better occupy the time allotted to me than by bringing under your 

 notice the work done by our Society during the two years of my 

 presidency, and then alluding to any subject in Natural History 

 connected with our County. Afterwards, if time permit, I will 

 continue the train of thought that I entered upon last year. 



The work of our Society divides itself into two parts : first, the 

 papers read in this room ; second, our work as a Hertfordshire Field 

 Club. 



I will first enumerate the principal papers which have been read. 

 In Meteorology we have had valuable papers from our Honorary 

 Secretary ; some observations taken at Cassiobury by the Earl of 

 Essex, who is a most indefatigable and accurate observer of the 

 weather; "Instructions for taking Meteorological Observations," 

 by Mr. "W. Marriott, Assistant- Secretary of the Meteorological 

 Society ; and Reports on the Rainfall, and on Phenological Obser- 

 vations in Hertfordshire, by our Honorary Secretary. This science 

 seems about to emerge from the reproach from which it suffered in 

 the time of Dr. Mason Good, who said of it : "Of all the sub- 

 divisions of general philosophy there is none so little entitled to 

 the name of science as meteorology itself." We have had some 

 valuable papers on botanical subjects. The Rev. George Henslow 

 has given us one paper "On the Eertilisation of Plants," in which 

 he expressed his opinion that his observations do not bear out the 

 theory of Darwin on the importance of cross-fertilisation ; and 

 another learned and interesting paper ' ' On the Origin and Present 

 Distribution of the British Flora." We have also had a paper 

 "On Microscopic Fungi," by Mr. Edward Chater ; and we have 

 had " Notes on some Hertfordshire Plants," by Mr. R. A. Pry or, 

 who, I regret to say, has not been seen so often among us of late, 

 owing, I believe, to ill-health. The Rev. Canon Gee, now Vicar of 

 Windsor, has given us an interesting paper on " Famous Trees in 

 Hertfordshire;" and Mr. J. J. Willis has contributed "Notes 

 on the Botany of the Experimental Grass Plots at Rothamstcd." 



VOL. II. — PT. V. 12 



