president's address. 27 



the use of your specimens, which are indeed very fine, as the 

 work of a much respected lapidary now dead ; and I do not 

 think any so fine are now made." 



I cannot myself lay claim to any other than a very general 

 acquaintance with Botany ; but a long-continued acquaintance 

 and friendship with some eminent cultivators of the science, 

 as well as the occasional perusal and deep admiration of. many 

 of the works which, of late years, have so richly illustrated 

 the subject, as also some collections of plants which I pos- 

 sess, have tended to impart interest to whatever researches of 

 a local character have fallen in my way. Among these, I must 

 mention the Supplement to the Flora of North Yorkshire, pub- 

 lished last year, the contents of which appear to be highly 

 creditable to the authors. From one of them, the son of an old 

 and valued friend, I have been favoured with some memoranda 

 relating to the progress of Botanical science, and to the distribu- 

 tion of plants, in the North of England. These latter relate more 

 especially to what has been called Phytostatics, which forms a 

 range of inquiry distinct from the more immediate conditions 

 which are the proper objects of Botanical science. True it is, 

 that before accurate observations can be made, as regards the 

 locality or distribution of plants, a considerable acquaintance 

 with Botany must be attained ; yet, with this as an indispen- 

 sable requisite, the question of distribution is one which particu- 

 larly claims the at'tention of a Society of professed excursionists. 



The following extracts are from a correspondence which I had 

 with Mr. Baker respecting the locality of certain plants : — 



" I find, on inquiry amongst others more learned than myself, 

 that we have, in Northumberland, some of the species which you 

 assign to Yorkshire, as a northern limit ; as, for example (p. 15), 

 Lepidium latifolium, at Tynemouth ; also on Magnesian Lime- 

 stone, at the same place, Brassica oleracea. Medicago maculata 

 has been imported to Hebburn, on the shores of Tyne, in 

 ballast. Viscum album, I am told, is abundant near Bradley, 

 on the south banks of Tyne. Carduus pratensis is found in 

 Winch's Flora of Northumberland and Durham. Wallis says 

 he found at Kyloe, in the northern part of Northumberland, 



