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In one branch of Natural History our Society is 

 fortunate in possessing some members who have a national, 

 nay, a world-wide reputation. I think that the younger 

 Entomologists of Blackheath hardly understand their 

 opportunities, or they would come in greater numbers to sit 

 at their feet. Again the Society used to be great in 

 Microscopical work. How is it that so few members bring 

 their Microscopes to the meetings for the common 

 instruction, as they used to do ? As to our other pursuit. 

 Photograph}', I myself have striven during the last two 

 years to make our Society more responsive to its title of 

 " Photographic " as something more than an empty name, 

 but with only partial success. I hope that our new 

 President, who is himself a Photographer, will not allow the 

 matter to drop. It should be remembered how well this 

 last-named of our professed pursuits is calculated to assist 

 the rest ; indeed, I think it is not sufficiently well under- 

 stood how easy it is to produce the fleeting images of the 

 minutest objects under the microscope by means of photo- 

 graphy, how valuable are the results as permanent objects 

 of study, how exquisite they are in detail — far surpassing in 

 fulness and accuracy the most elaborate hand-drawings. I 

 have seen a bacterium photographed with a one-tenth of an 

 inch object-glass, again enlarged, and the image of the 

 resulting photograph made by the aid of a lantern to cover 

 a screen eight feet in diameter in such a manner as to shew 

 distinctly the granular formation of its protoplasm. 



I had proposed to myself this evening to present to 

 your notice a complete review of the progress which has 

 been made in an important branch of mycological science, 

 viz., the Agaricini, during the last twenty years. The 

 publication of Mr. Berkeley," Outlines of British Fungology," 

 made in 1865, affords an excellent starting point. Our 

 acquaintance with the Cryptogamic Flora, especially the 

 Fungi, has shared in the great advance made in all branches 

 of Science during the present generation. With respect to our 

 British Mycology, the labours of Berkeley and Currey, of 



