8 president's address. 



"But I can testify, that where it has been sown by English 

 railway companies, along the slopes of cuttings and embank- 

 ments in the province of Brabant, it has lived for two or three 

 years, and made longer and more vigorous shoots than in Eng- 

 land; but that a subsequent sharp winter, and hot rapid spring 

 have been too much for it, and have killed it out. Its hue 

 there was glaucous as in the North of England, not dark green, 

 as in Surrey. But this would probably depend in some degree 

 upon the locality from whence the seed was brought ; for the 

 hue of the plant would doubtless be hereditary for some time, 

 wherever cultivated. 



" In passing through Boughley Wood, and near some of the 

 small gills upon Rimside Moor, that aiford sites for little groups 

 of birch, I could not help admiring once more the upland variety 

 of that beautiful native tree, as contradistinguished from the 

 weeping birch of the sheltered Highland lochs and river sides. 



" The w^eeping plant, so exquisitely beautiful in its proper 

 place, is in truth not much hardier than the weeping willow of 

 Babylon, when transferred to the cold uplands which are exposed 

 to every blast of heaven, to great evaporation, and continual loss 

 of warmth by radiation. For such localities a much hardier, 

 stifFer variety has been propagated by the Unerring Hand which 

 directs all the operations of wdld nature. And in all exposed 

 plantations upon our plains and table-lands, the stiff upland 

 birch ought to be sedulously cultivated. Upon all dry soils also 

 this is the birch to resist evaporation, and to reward the 

 planter. 



"At Brinkburn, the beautiful ruin of the Priory was examined 

 in the company of several Members of the Club who had arrived 

 at an earlier hour from Newcastle, and who, after a ramble up 

 the Coquet, had returned to the old venerable walls and aisles. 



"We had the advantage of examining some of the most inte- 

 resting features, wdth the assistance of the Rev. Thomas Finch, 

 of Morpeth, who had joined the party, and was well qualified to 

 lead us at this spot. 



" There is in the woods a fine growth of the most characteristic 

 native underwood of Northern Britain; and the odours of the 



