52 



fluential a meeting, and he was, therefore, rather taken 

 aback when called upon by the chairman to address them. 

 He was, however, glad to see the progress the society was 

 evidently making, and more especially the interest which 

 the people of Ashford evidently took in the science of 

 Natural History. The specimens collected together in the 

 room were sufficiently numerous to constitute a museum, 

 which would be a credit to the district. It was the general 

 impression among the inhabitants of other parts of the 

 county that Ashford was an exceedingly slow place, and 

 greatly behind neighbouring towns. ("Oh! oh!" and 

 laughter.) Certainly that had been the feeling, but their 

 gathering of that day, and the evidence before him of the 

 extent to which the science of Natural History had been 

 cultivated by the inhabitants, must go far to correct the 

 impression. He concluded by observing that an immense 

 boon would be conferred upon the inhabitants of Ashford 

 if the exhibitors of the specimens then in the room could be 

 induced to give them for the purpose of forming the 

 nucleus of a public museum. (Hear.) 



Mr. J. Marten addressed the meeting on the results of 

 the botanical excursion to Eastwell. It was not, he said, 

 his intention to give a complete list of the plants found, 

 but simply to mention the natural families whose reign is 

 principally centred in the present season, taking them in 

 their order as to importance and number, and noticing spe- 

 cially any rarities or plants of peculiar interest. The prin- 

 cipal families were — 1, the grass ; 2, the composite ; and 

 3, the umbellate. The families of secondary importance 

 were— 4, the rush ; 5, the sedge ; 6, the polygonum ; 7, 

 the goosefoot ; 8, the gentian ; 9, the wnothera ; and 10, 

 the campanula. Of the grasses, sedges and rushes, it was 

 not necessary for him to spuak at any length, as, although of 

 great interest to botanists, they were not popularly con- 

 sidered as flowering plants. The composites were very 

 numerous. Among them he might first notice the daisy, 

 growing among the grasses, in the corn fields and hedges ; 

 the clori/auufhemmns and camomiles, some species of the 



