62 



a moss or a lichen left to manage its own affairs on a desert island. The subject 

 I have cursorily touched ui^on— the limitation of plants to certain soils and rocks 

 —you must admit is well deserving of attentive examination. I do not profess to 

 have now extensively treated it as the theme deserves— our limited time would 

 not permit it — but I have merely produced a few burs of observation carried off 

 while passing through the thickets of research ; and if, perchance, some of them 

 stick to any friends I have now the pleasure of addressing, they may possibly, 

 stored in thoughtful ground, germinate in due time, and like plants migrating to 

 a richer soil, produce double flowers, exhale a richer fragrance, and rise in fuller 

 luxuriance than when located on the original bai-ren shales of their birthplace. 

 At all events, as the humblest weed produces seeds of some kind, which are scat- 

 tered about as if uselessly by the idle winds, and yet the little birds find them 

 out, or they come up where least expected, so every winged thought takes its 

 course, and lives its life over again in the minds of others to some useful purpose. 



So concluding in the homely, but quaintly impressive language of one of our 

 almost-forgotten poets, I may say— 



" There's not a tree, a plant, a leaf, a blossom. 

 But contains a folio volume ; we may read 

 And read again, and still find something new, 

 Something to please, and something to in.struct, 

 E'en in the humblest weed." (Applause). 



Upon the subject thus quaintly and amusingly started by Mr. Lees, a con- 

 versation ensued, in which Mr. Strickland, Professor Buckman, and other gentle- 

 men took part. Mr. Strickland expressed his conviction that the distribution of 

 plants was rather mineralologioal than geological. The plant chooses limestone, 

 not any particular formation of it. Provided it contains the required mineral, 

 the plant does not care twopence about the age of the rock. (Laughter and ap- 

 plause). It was agreed, on the motion of Dr. Wright, that a Committee, con- 

 sisting of Professor Buckman, Mr. Lees, and Mr. W. H. Purchas, be appointed 

 to prepare a Flora of the district. 



REMARKS ON THE ICHTHYOLOGY OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 



By Hew?:tt Wheatlet. 



In a short paper of this kind, it i.=i impossible to enter upon even the briefest 

 preliminary sketch of the Natural History of our British Fishes ; with a few 

 incidental ob,servation.s, therefore, on Ichthyology in general, the following will 

 be confined to the species of this county — Herefordshire. 



One of the most striking curiosities of Natural History, is the close approxi- 

 mation of a higher order, to its immediate inferior— the nicely graduated degrees 

 in the scale of being. 



