new to Herefordshire. These comprise all the novelties that have, to my knowledge, 

 been recorded during the year as finds of the Woolhope Club. Always, as before said, 

 excepting the funguses. 



Non semper tendit arciis Apollo. 



Thus, it would seem that our more zealous members have lost something of their 

 wonted energy', and many who have joined in our excursions have been rather dillettanti 

 philosophers than active workers in nature's fair and generous field. Let us hope that, in 

 accordance with the French saying "reculer pour mienx sauter," they are only resting for 

 a season, and that, ere long, the hammer and vasculum will reveal new treasures, signs and 

 tokens of a happy revival. Field Naturalist's Clubs appear to be subject to the laws 

 which govern enterprise throughout the world, and even the operations of Dame Nature 

 herself. After the storm, be it natural, political, social, or philosophical, comes a calm. 

 A member of our Association, almost from its birth, I can remember many an alternation, 

 anon a flash followed by glimmering lights, for a time cerebral activity would be domi- 

 nant, and again a state of repose would ensue with but a fitful spark to denote that the 

 sacred fire was smothered for a time but not extinct. Our last and grandest storm has 

 recently passed away ; it lasted five years ; our Jupiter Tonans was Dr. Bull. It is to him, 

 I say it emphatically, that we owe the spirit infused into us during those five 

 years. I do not depreciate in the least the talents or the works of those who helped him 

 in composing and collecting materials for those volumes, which have shed, far and wide, 

 lustre on the name of the Woolhope Club, but he was the masterspirit who evoked, who 

 ruled and guided the genius of the storm. He brought out the chariot, he harnessed the 

 steeds, he handled the ribbons and lashed the whip, but, unlike Phceton, he guided us 

 home in safety, and be now tells us to take our turn. The mantle is ready at h and, will 

 no man of might, no second Jehu, gird it about his loins ? 



Your last President, who this evening, lays down the sceptre you have entrusted to 

 his feeble hands, has not been able to do anything for you. May his successor, the Rev. 

 James Davies, of Moor Court, prove himself a brave and victorious chief in our happy 

 hunting grounds, and may mighty spoils adorn your girdles when he guides you in the chase ! 



Setting aside all metaphor, such work as Dr. Bull undertook for us, demands a com- 

 bination of talents with facilities that falls to the lot of very few. You all know too well 

 his fitness for the task he so successfully carried out, to require that I should do violence 

 to his modest wish to be spared a suitable recognition of the untiring energy, rare com- 

 prehensiveness, and masterly command over work, even to the minutest detail, which have 

 signalised his labours in our service. But, gentlemen, if Dr. Bull has set his face reso- 

 lutely against the acceptance of a substantial proof of our heartfelt acknowledgment, he 

 cannot entirely escape from the consequences of his own deeds, or smother the feelings of 

 regard, of admiration, and of gratitude for his courteous, indefatigable, and most success- 

 ful efforts to promote the usefulness and the welfare of our Association. As your Presi- 

 dent, I may be said to be making a last dying speech and confession, and, if in no other 

 respect I can have done ought that may be acceptable to you, I know that in thus speak- 

 ing of Dr. Bull I am giving expression to the sentiments of every member who has had the 

 pleasure of meeting him in the field or has profited by the fertility of his ever ready 

 tongue, his facile pen, and skilful pencil. 



Our Club, in its financial aspect, appears to be sound, and the continued accession of 

 new members attests its popularity. As time rolls on changes must occur, old and well- 

 known faces disappear, and many leave their mark behind them. Last year Mr. Cam, in 

 hia retiring address, alluded to the loss science had sustained by the death of Sir Roderick 

 Unrchison. This year another luminary, also for a long period an honourary member of 



