69 



from the quiet retirement of their studies. Many of them 

 are content with a less share of worldly things than satis- 

 fies us ; hence we find amongst them a much larger number 

 of men who make scientific research the business of a life 

 than is to be found here. We have around us an earnest 

 band of amateurs who turn from their special callings at the 

 close of the day to such branches of natural science as they 

 severally select for the recreations of the evening and of the 

 holiday; but such interrupted and superficial studies, invalu- 

 able as they are to the students themselves — and I believe 

 that we can scarcely exaggerate that value — are insufficient 

 to supply the deeper want upon which I have dwelt. I can 

 only trust that we shall all be roused during the coming ses- 

 sion to grapple with some of the profound biological questions 

 that are now before the world asking for solution ; and that 

 we may thus contribute, in some humble degree, to remove 

 the reproach which I fear deservedly rests upon us, of being 

 satisfied with the more easily followed and superficial lines 

 of enquiry, instead of striving boldly to sink our plumb- 

 lines into the deepest abysses of the vast ocean of undis- 

 covered truth. 



Mr. H. A. Hurst read a Paper " On the Flora of Alex- 

 andria (Egypt)," illustrated by a series of specimens collected 

 by himself 



"On the Destruction of the Rarer Species of British 

 Ferns," by Joseph Sidebotham, F.R.A.S. 



The object of the writer was to protest strongly against 

 the destruction of many of the rare species of our native 

 ferns. He mentioned four districts in Lancashire, Derby- 

 shire, Westmorland, and Wales, and gave lists of ferns which 

 he had found abundantly in them 25 years ago, all of which 

 have now entirely disappeared, or have become exceedingly 

 rare. Since fern collecting became a sort of fashion a few 



