LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. lxxxili 
they indicate species, varieties, or individual differences. Let us 
adopt for the insects and plants of our islands the nomenclature and 
_classification the most convenient for study, and devote our attention 
to their economy and development, to the complicated structures dis- 
closed by the microscope, and to those innumerable influences which 
we term accidental, but which appear all to form part of one general 
plan for the balance of power in the natural world. If, at this time 
next year, I am still honoured by a seat in this Chair, [ hope to lay 
before you a sketch of the state of those branches of our studies 
which I have now been unable to touch upon; and it will be a 
matter of great gratification to me, if I have to report that many a 
Fellow of the Society may have taken a leaf out of Mr. Darwin’s 
book, and commenced a series of observations on some of the subjects 
I have alluded to. 
OBITUARY NOTICES. 
The Secretary then read the following Notices of deceased 
Honorary Members, Fellows, Foreign Members, and Associates. 
Of the three illustrious names enrolled as Honorary Members of 
this Society, we have to lament the loss of two within the last 
twelvemonth, both in the prime of life, and both more than usually 
distinguished, not only for their sincere and earnest endeavours to 
promote the cause of science, but also for their extensive knowledge 
and liberal minds. 
Of his late Roya Hicuness toe Prince Consort, whose death we 
have all so deeply mourned, and whose memory will ever be so 
dear to the community he loved to serve, it is scarcely necessary on 
the present occasion to say more than that we, as a scientific body, 
have in him more especially to lament the loss of one who at all 
times evinced the most earnest desire to promote science, and 
was enabled to do so from his wide-spread acquaintance with almost 
every branch of it. 
The memory of his Masesty Don Pepro V., King of Portugal, 
demands more than a mere passing notice. Irrespective of his ex- 
alted station, his individual character as an earnest worker and 
munificent patron of science, and more especially of natural history, 
requires that I should offer some account of his brief but useful 
career. 
Though many monarchs have deservedly ‘been known as the 
