24 



ANNUAL ADDRESS TO THE MEMBERS 



OF THE 



Sowtb ITonbon d-ntomologital anb l^atitral ^Sistorg 



Bead January 21th, 1921, 

 By K. G. Blair, B.Sc, F.E.S. 



LADIES and GENTLEMEN, from the Reports of the Treasurer 

 and the Council that you have heard read you will have 

 learned that in spite of the present hard times the position 

 of the Society is a flourishing one, your membership continues to 

 increase, attendance at the meetings remains at a high level, and 

 the number and interest of the exhibits maintains a very satisfactory 

 standard. In particular at our last Annual Exhibition of Varieties 

 the attendance was a record one, falling very little short of 150. 

 The exhibits on this occasion, while numerous and of great interest, 

 were perhaps to a greater extent than usual confined to the Lepi- 

 doptera, and we missed completely the botanical exhibits that 

 usually add a welcome note of variety to these occasions. 



The Field Meetings have perhaps been less successful than any 

 other feature of our programme, but in view of the unsettled state 

 of the weather that persisted almost throughout the summer, we 

 can regard this comparative failure as our misfortune, rather than 

 our fault. The soaking with which the keenness of those of us who 

 attended the Horsley meeting was rewarded, was certainly enough 

 to damp any ardour for future meetings, but came too late in the 

 day seriously to interfere with the success of that meeting. 



We have lost only two members by death in the course of the 

 year, but the loss of one of these was a very heavy blow to the 

 Society. 



Wm. West, for so many years of Greenwich, was born in 1836. 



