PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. t 



agreeably varied by an intermixture of Ulex nanus, it never sur- 

 passes, in vigour of growth, our own wbin-covers. Nor was it 

 this year more than a fortnight earlier there in exhibiting its 

 Easter blossoms, than with us. 



" The truth is, that February and March are severe and trying 

 months to vegetation, even in the south of Ireland, where water 

 at the same time may not be frozen. The native pasturage is 

 as white and sear as with us, and all growth is suspended. As 

 the winds perform many of the offices of the sun, in summer, in 

 oceanic climates, so they are capable of checking vegetation at 

 the end of winter, no less effectually than frost, and of bracing 

 the human frame, in like manner. Ireland is a wind-swept 

 country, which enjoys the benefit of a real winter through the 

 operation of the colder winds, and. a well-marked contrast 

 between winter and spring, notwithstanding its insular position 

 and nominally mild winter temperature. 



" In Ireland, both the whin and the yew, and I may add the 

 holly, exhibit the same tints of green that they show here with 

 us; whereas, in Surrey and Kent, where the sun's power is much 

 greater, their foliage is extremely dark, insomuch that the yew 

 appears truly funereal, and the whin or furze has almost the 

 aspect of a different species. The wastes, covered with luxuriant 

 furze and holly, of rare vigour, symmetry and beauty, in the 

 north-western upl^-nds of Surrey, and the adjoining parts of 

 Berkshire and Hampshire, are well worthy of a visit by the 

 Northern Naturalist. But even amidst that splendid vegetation 

 of a superior climate, he will probably not see any such simul- 

 taneous burst of golden flower, or breathe such perfumed air as 

 upon our own hill-sides, in May. At least, in passing through 

 those parts of Surrey, at the beginning of May this year, I was 

 disappointed by finding no general burst of flower at all. 



"In Devonshire and Cornwall, the furze puts on a different 

 appearance from an^ : ^ these. For whilst it keeps its glaucous 

 hue of green, as in the N:_ h, it shoots up to a stature that often 

 permits one to walk beneath it without much stooping. This, 

 in all likelihood, must be its character upon the opposite wastes 

 of Brittany, v/here T have never been. 



