president's address. 141 



attention, our fortified churches, as Ancroft and Corbridge, where 

 it is supposed the ecclesiastics took refuge from the incursions of 

 hostile borderers, a practice which would seem to countenance 

 the recent hypothesis of Dr. Petrie, that the round towers in 

 Ireland, in the neighbourhood of cathedral and mother churches 

 had been for the like purpose of protection against the Danes. 



The Fifth Meeting was held at Roker and Whitburn, on the 

 12th of September, when the beauty of the day, and the oppor- 

 tunity of ready access from all our chief towns brought together 

 a muster of 37 members. To suit the convenience of as many 

 members as possible, arrangements had been made for proceeding 

 by tw^o trains j one leaving the Central Station, in the Forth, at 

 9, the other at 10 a.m. The second division, on arriving at 

 Cleadon, was joined by the Eev. G. Cooper Abbes, w^ho had 

 kindly undertaken to act as guide to the various objects of in- 

 terest in that locality. Those who had set out by the earlier 

 train, on alighting at Monkwearmouth, soon became scattered. 

 Some might be seen wending their way to the docks, others to 

 the coast, botanists looking for plants, geologists chipping with 

 their hammers, the magnesian limestone rocks, and some searching 

 for mollusks. No new discoveries, however, appear to have been 

 made. Near Roker, Melilotus alha, a somewhat rare plant, but 

 not indigenous in Durham or Northumberland, was noticed in 

 considerable abundance, Here also Sinapis muralis, another 

 ballast importation, was observed. Below Eoker, Elymus arena- 

 rius was met with in profusion. This species, from its extensively 

 creeping roots, is said to be of great value in preserving our own 

 coasts and those of Holland, from the encroachments of the sea. 

 Reseda lutea, Glyceria riyida, Faimvei' Argemone, P. Rhceas, 

 Trifolium arvense, and Senecio viscosus were also found upon the 

 ballast heaps. More northerly, on the limestone, Hehninti'iia 

 echioides, Pyrethrum maritimum, and Erythrcea centaurium were 

 collected. Tragopogon minor (Fries) occurred in the same neigh- 

 bourhood; this plant closes its flowers before twelve o'clock, and 

 has acquired, if we mistake not, the appellation of " John-go-to- 

 bed-at-noon." The weather, during the whole of the day, being 

 most delightful, the excursion proved highly gratifying. 



VOL. II. PT. II. T 



