172 president's address. 



aucune trace des iioms Ecossais dans les Flores d'Ecosse, 

 et des iioms Irlandais dans les Flores d' Irlande. lis auraient 

 line grande valeur dans les questions sur V origine douteuse d' 

 especes des lies Britanniques, naturalisees, peut-etre, depuis 

 quelqiies Siecles" (pp. 1349-50); and certainly it is advisable 

 for us to retain, in all our home or district Floras, the local and 

 common names of every plant. 



Now, it is principally with reference to the Geology of our two 

 counties of Northumberland and Durham, as connected with 

 their Botany, that I much desire that more attention may be 

 paid, by some of our members, to the extremely interesting sub- 

 ject of Geographical Botany, and to the distribution of the genera 

 and species in this region ; their increase or disappearance ; their 

 northern and southern limits; their preference for argillaceous, 

 calcareous, siliceous, porphyritic, volcanic, sienitic, or other mi- 

 neralogical qualities of the ground. Also the various altitudes 

 to which other plants attain in our mountains and hilly districts 

 are of importance ; and the effects of cold and heat, of moisture 

 and dryness, of the density of the atmosphere, and other natural 

 causes, must be at the same time duly considered. 



My late friend, Mr. Winch, who for long resided in this town, 

 and, as a Geologist and a Field Botanist, paid early attention to 

 this subject, published, in 1819, a brief interesting " Essay on 

 the Geographical Distribution of Plants," through not only the 

 two before-named counties, but also through Cumberland. And 

 again, in 1825, he somewhat enlarged it in a second edition. 

 Likewise, Mr. Winch wrote a paper, " On the Distribution of 

 the Indigenous Plants of Northumberland and Durham, as con- 

 nected with their Geology;^'' and this instructive, though much 

 too short communication, was afterM^ards published in the 

 Transactions of our " Natural History Society." 



Before I quit this subject, I will record tico examples, which 

 came under my observation last summer, as relating to the 

 nature of the soils which some plants naturally jjrefer. The one 

 is. that on the 12th of July last, I found a meadow, about three 

 miles S.W. of Norton, covered with the beautiful Orchis pyrami- 

 dalis; and having previously often seen the plant in the Magne- 



