VOL. XVI.(1) | THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS 5 
vegetation, and twenty-four of the sections of the map 
have already been taken in hand by different workers. In 
the Bristol district, thanks to the labours of Mr J. D. 
White, F.L.S.,a very considerable advance has been made 
in the record of species. In the Cotteswold country some 
3000 records have already been sent to Mr Coley; and a 
large number have been received by Miss Laurie for the 
Vale country. Those specimens which are in any way 
doubtful have been sent to Father Reader for determination. 
He expresses a wish to receive specimens more especially 
of the Water Ranunculi, Roses, Rubi, Epilobia, Callitriche, 
Polygala, Viola, Euphrasia, Mentha, Salices, Carices and 
Grasses, the varieties of which are so numerous. 
It is, of course, mainly with Geology that our Club has 
been concerned in the past, and in the present its study is 
being steadily prosecuted. Mr Richardson, Mr J. W. 
Gray, and Mr E. Talbot Paris have collected very detailed 
information regarding the distribution of the sands and 
gravels in the Vale of Gloucester, and it is to be hoped 
that we shall have the benefit of their researches before 
long. The attractions of Geology, as the more modern 
science, are doubtless considerable. But there is con- 
stant evidence in the best publications of the present 
day of the room still left for exploration and discovery 
in the prosecution of the older sciences. Botany, in- 
deed, in its recent development Ecology, offers almost 
untrodden ground to the explorer, but it would seem that 
in almost all, if not all, the counties of England, in such 
branches of the botanical world as the Fungi, Lichens and 
Freshwater Algze, there is still much need for careful 
investigation, and that many discoveries await the patient 
student. For those who like to adopt a special line for 
themselves, the study of such orders as the Characez offers, 
perhaps, unusual attractions ; for in addition to the secrets 
of their caprices in the selection of their Aadztat, and 
