16 



Mr. Crouch, in his Presidential Address, lias very clearly and 

 ably explained to you the scope of the Flora of Herefordshire, 

 ■vrhich has been prepared under the direction of Mr. Purchas ; hopes 

 •were entertained that a part of it would be placed in the publisher's 

 hands during the past year. Mr. Stmonds, of Pendock, undertook 

 to supply, by way of preface, a short account of the geology and 

 soil on which the plants grow. If I remember rightly, the man- 

 iiscript, although in a forward state, was not ready for the printer, 

 and therefore the publication was delayed. On behalf of the Club, 

 I venture to express a hope that Mr. Purchas will endeavour to 

 carry out, in part at least, during the present year, the completion 

 of a work which will so greatly assist the systematic Botanist, and 

 will reflect so much credit on himself. 



One other subject occurs to me as worthy of a few remarks. The 

 Aquarium, now so easily procured and managed, enables us to 

 observe the structure, and study the habits, of the numerous 

 animals which fi'equent our streams and ponds — the gradual 

 developement of the tadpole, of the frog, and the newt ; and the 

 transformation of the insects whose larv^ are aquatic, as the gnat, 

 the dragon fly, and the may-fly, and the beetles and other insects 

 whose life is spent in the water — we may watch their movements 

 and see how the countless forms of annual life, which abound in 

 the water, are reduced in number by the predatory habits of each 

 other — we may watch the sportive activity of the smallest of our 

 flshes ; the mode in which the crayfish propels himself, the use 

 which it makes of those jaw feet, which were so fully developed in 

 the Pterygoti, and in how wonderful a manner it periodically 

 emerges from its shelly covering, and withdrawing all its members, 

 even the delicate antennae, casts aside in an entne form its old coat, 

 and appears in all the splendour of a new one. But, in addition to 

 these recorded facts, I think the Aquarium will enable us, by care- 

 ful observation, to record many new facts which otherwise would 

 escape our observation, especially in the winter season, under the 

 influence of a low temperature, when these inhabitants of the water 



