568 Extracts from the Council Minute-Book of the Linnean Society. 



The Council proceeded to take the above letter into consideration, 

 and voted the following Address to be presented to the Court of Di- 

 rectors on Tuesday next, the 26th instant, by a Deputation of the 

 Council, viz. 



" The Council of the Linnean Society having had a letter laid before 

 them by the President, addressed to His Loidship by the Chair- 

 man and Deputy Chairman of the Court of Directors of the East 

 India Company, in which that Honourable Court have been pleased 

 to offer for the acceptance of the Society the extensive collection of 

 dried plants preserved in the Museum of the India House, take the 

 earliest opportunity of expressing their high sense of the distin- 

 guished honour conferred upon the Society by this unexampled act 

 of liberality. 



" The Council, in behalf of the Society, accept with feelings of 

 profound gratitude the Collection thus proffered to them, and beg 

 to assure the Court that it shall be held as a trust for the general 

 benefit of science. 



" The Council cannot avoid expressing their admiration of the 

 enlightened policy shown by the Honourable Court of Directors 

 with relation to their collections in natural history, in extending 

 the advantage to be derived from them by the most liberal distri- 

 bution of specimens throughout the scientific world, and by this 

 memorable instance of their munificence in placing the fruits of 

 the labours of Konig, Roxburgh, Rottler, Russell, Klein, Hamilton, 

 Heyne, Wight, Finlayson, and Wallich with those of the immortal 

 Linnaeus. 



" The East India Company, by extending its patronage to those 

 distinguished naturalists who have cultivated science in Asia, so 

 much to their own honour, and to the credit of the service to which 

 they belonged, and by the generous use of the rich materials in its 

 possession, has deeply impressed the members of every learned insti- 

 tution throughout Europe and America with feelings of admiration 

 and respect ; and the Council of the Linnean Society can only reecho 

 the voice of general acknowledgement for the great services which 

 the Honourable Company has thus rendered to the cause of science. 



