Proceedings. cxliii 



endeavour to keep well within our income. Our Annual Soiree 

 is still a severe tax on our resources, but its success and the 

 reputation it enjoys fully justify its cost ; and I believe we are 

 in an unique position in giving such an entertainment on so 

 small an annual subscription. 



You have seen that, in spite of additions to our membership, 

 resignations prevent anything like a large increase of revenue : 

 may I therefore remind all our members that they can materially 

 assist the well-being of the Club by obtaining fresh members, 

 and thereby increasing our annual income. A membership of 

 400 would by no means increase our expenses pro rata, and 

 would give us a fair annual surplus. 



With such a varied series of work as we do, and with such a 

 small subscription, carrying as it does so many advantages, we 

 ought in so populous a district to obtain a more regular accession 

 of new members than we do even now, and I again urge our 

 present members individually to forward our interests by intro- 

 ducing as many of their friends as possible. 



As regards our Special Fund, there is nothing worthy of 

 remark except that it carries a balance of £27 2s. lOd., which I 

 believe may be applied to the purchase of apparatus and 

 appliances for the use of members. 



Our Sub-Sections are doing very good work, and the reports 

 which have been sent in by the various Secretaries show that 

 the past year has been one of general activity and prosperity. 

 These reports are as follows, viz : — 



Beport of the Botanical Sub-Committee, January, 1890. 



The Botanical Sub-Committee report that the whole of the 

 specimens in the Herbarium of the Club have been securely mounted 

 and labelled, and are arranged in the cabinet in the Committee Room, 

 where they can be referred to by members. It is hoped that further 

 considerable contributions to the collection will be received shortly, as 

 the result of the work of our local botanists dm-ing the past season. 

 Assistance in this direction is earnestly invited. The Sub-Committee 

 have sustained a serious loss by the removal of their valued colleague, 

 Mr. Wm. Fred. Miller from Croydon. His services to the Club, as 

 the recorder of the dates of the flowering of plants in the county, 

 extending over a long series of years, the results of which have been 

 pubUshed in the Transactions of the Club, have been of great value, 

 and his place will be difficult to supply. It would be an appropriate 

 recognition of his services to the Club were he elected an Honorary 

 Member. The excm-sion under the auspices of the Botanical Com- 

 mittee was unfortunately, owing to the weather, a failure. Mr. Straker, 

 who kindly undertook to conduct it, reports that only two members, 

 neither of them botanists, accompanied him, and that the programme 

 laid down had to be curtailed and altered. Mr. Beeby, in a letter to 

 the Secretary of the Committee, says : — 



" The only striking addition to oxur Surrey list is TJlex gallii, a plant 



62 



