40 PROCEEDIKGS OF THE 



The President then addressed Mr. He^s'Iiv Buougham Guppt, 

 M.B., and related liis service to Biology, which had caused the 

 Council to award the Linnean Gold Medal to him : — 



Mr. Hekby Brougham Guppi, — 



I have much pleasure in presenting to you on behalf of 

 the Society our Linnean Medal, which the Council has awarded 

 you for your work in those branches of science in «hich we are 

 especially interested. 



This work has extended over many years and been carried out 

 in widely distant fields. 



Early in your career you took advantage of your position as a 

 Surgeon in Her Majesty's Navy to make important investigations 

 in the Far East. In 1878 you visited the Corean Archipelago, 

 and also made geological and meteorological t)bservations in 

 China, Formosa, and Japan. Then, as Surgeon on H.M.S. 

 'Lark,' commissioned for survey work in the Western Pacific, 

 you had the opportunity of spending some time in the Solomon 

 Islands. The results of your careful and extended observations 

 appeared in 1887, in j'^our account of the ethnology, natural 

 history, and geology of the Islands ; your observations on coral- 

 reefs were published shortly before by the Eoyal Society of 

 Edinburgh. 



In 1888 you visited the Cocos-Keeling Islands for the purpose 

 of making a detailed study of the coral formation there, and your 

 work resulted in a highly important contribution to a subject of 

 great interest. 



But the results obtained by you which have especially arrested 

 the attention of the Fellows of our Society are contained in two 

 works, the first of which was published in 1906, the second this 

 year. The former \^'ork embodied the results of your studies 

 "during three years spent in the Pacific Islands : the first volume, 

 dealing with the geology of Vauua Levu, lies outside our 

 province ; the second, entitled " Plant Dispersal," while dis- 

 cussing matters affecting the distribution of plants in general, 

 approached the subject more especially in relation to the littoral 

 floras of the Pacific Islands and the part played by floating fruits 

 and seeds in building up these floras. 



The recent work " Plants, Seeds, and Currents in the "West 

 Indies and the Azores " is an account of your prolonged study of 

 the factors governing the distribution of fruits and seeds by ocean 

 currents, as illustrated by the littoral flora of the West Indies 

 and by the flora of the Azores. 



These two works, in which you have brought together a vast 

 number of facts, are a mine of wealth for the student of plant- 

 distribution ; while the deductions which you have made from 

 tliose facts are helpful and stimulating. 



We remember, too, your good work done at home, some of the 

 results of which have been communicated to us in this room and 

 have been published in our Journal. I refer to your papers 



