PEOOREDINGS FOR 1891. XXI 



favourable to the growth of certain plants, and thus indicating the localities for particular insects, and 

 also in tracing the impressions left by extinct species in various geological formations ; and the Micro- 

 scopical, in noting the structural peculiarities of insects, and in aiding to classify minute forms. 



The Botanical section numbers sixteen members. Its chairman is Mr. J. Dearness; vice-chair- 

 man, Pi'ofessor Bowman ; and secretary, Dr. S. Carson. Meetings for study and mutual assistance 

 are held every Saturday evening from the 1st of May to the 1st of October. A number of excursions 

 have been carried out, and some new species added to the already well-examined flora of the environs 

 of London. Two new mosses have been discovered by Mr. Dearness, and a surprisingly large number 

 of new fungi — more than sixty now named, and some yet unnamed. These fungi are for the most 

 part new, not to Canada onlj^, but to the whole of America. 



The Ornithological section also is flourishing. It is engaged in gathering up facts of general 

 import to ornithology, and is about to commence a systematic list of the breeding birds of Middlesex 

 county, to be presented at the next annual meeting of the society. Its chairman is Mr. Wm. Saun- 

 ders, and its secretary Mr. N. O. Balkwill. 



The Geological section has nine members, Dr. S. Wolverton being chairman, Mr. T. Green vice- 

 chairman, and Mr. J. L. Goodburne secretary. The members have made regular weekly excursions, 

 and the district around London has been well worked up by them, and numerous interesting fossils 

 have been added to the society's collections. Taken altogether, the year's work done by this section 

 has been very satisfactory ; the interest of the members has not flagged at any time, but each has 

 seemed anxious to do what he coiild towards adding to the general stock of information. 



The Microscopical section also has been active. It numbei's twelve members, and it has in use 

 eleven first-class microscopes. Ten meetings have been held by the members for private study, and 

 two public entertainments for the benefit of the young people of the city have been given. Special 

 attention has been paid by this section to fungi, mildews upon fruit-trees, rust in wheat, etc. Mr. 

 John M. Denton is chairman of the section, and Professors Bowman and Dearness microscopical 

 directors. 



It is generally conceded that the formation of these sections was a happy j)rocedure that strength- 

 ened the society and increased its usefulness. 



At the last annual meeting the society secured the services of Mr. J. Alston Moffat, one of its 

 members, who engaged to take entire chai-gc of the society's rooms, library and collections, and to be 

 a permanent resident oflicial in London. It is felt that the greatest care will be taken by Mr. Moffat 

 for the preservation and arrangement of the society's valuable collections of insects. These have 

 lately been enlarged by the purchase from Mr. Johnson Pettit, of Grimsby, of several well-filled and 

 well-arranged cabinets of Coleoptera, etc., the results of many years' intelligent labour on the part of 

 Mr. Pettit. 



Amongst the tokens of public recognition of the value of its collections the societj^ preserves the 

 medals and diplomas awarded it at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876, the International Fisheries 

 Exhibition in 1883, and the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in 1886. 



The library of the society now numbers 1,100 volumes. Amongst them are such costly works as 

 the " Challenger " Eeports, 20 vols. ; Smith's Collection of Abbot's Illustrations, 2 vols., 1797 ; Drury's 

 Exotic Entomology, 3 vols. ; Stephen's Entomology, 8 vols. ; Kirby's Entomology, 4 vols. ; Say's 

 Entomolgy, 2 vols. ; Edward's Butterflies of North America, 2 vols. ; Scudder's Butterflies of New 

 England, 3 vols.; McCook's American Spiders, 2 vols.; Packard's Monograph of the Geometrid 

 Moths; Lord Walsingham's Illustrations of Typical North American Tortricidœ, 2 vols. ; The Amer- 

 ican Naturalist, 20 vols. ; Scudder's Fossil Insects, 2 vols., etc. It is continually enriched by the 

 printed reports and periodicals from the principal entomological societies of Great Britain, Australia 

 Austria, France, Germanj', India, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, South America and the United States of 

 America. 



The society's collections, librar^^, electrotypes, etc., are insured for §3,500. 



