3o6 Transactions British Mycological Society. 



This is based upon the fuller classifications in Engler and 

 Prantl's Pflanzenfamihen and although it leaves much to be 

 desired, especially in the classification of the Basidiomycetes, 

 may be very well taken as a basis for further improvements 

 and emendations. 



The study of ecological problems arising out of the distribu- 

 tion of the Fungi is almost an untouched field. Many of these 

 problems are most difficult and perplexing, and will demand 

 most patient and laborious investigation both in the field and 

 in the laboratory. We may hope that the committee appointed 

 by the British Association to report upon the possibihties of 

 the investigation of the ecology of the Fungi may very shortly 

 indicate profitable lines of study along which our energies may 

 be directed. 



The British Mycological Society has played an important part 

 in the progress of Mycology during the period under review; 

 many of the most striking discoveries made during the last 

 twenty-fi\'e years, which have completely modified our views 

 and conceptions of Mycology, have been made by members of 

 our Society. Our most grateful thanks are due to Mr Carleton 

 Rea, and, may I add, to Mrs Rea also, for the splendid services 

 they have rendered during all these years in the organisation 

 and development of the work of the Society. Not the least im- 

 portant effect of the success of the Society has been the pos- 

 sibility of its reconstitution upon a wider basis, and with a 

 more elaborate organisation. We look forward with confidence 

 to a highly successful and prosperous future for the Society, 

 and to increased activity and usefulness in all departments of 

 Mycology in which we hope that both amateur and professional 

 mycologists will play their part.' 



Before I pass on to the main subject of my address I wish to 

 refer briefly to the losses we have sustained by death during the 

 year. 



The death of Thomas Gibbs, who had been a member of our 

 Society from its foundation, leaves us the poorer by a charming 

 personality, and an indefatigable worker in the realm of sys- 

 tematic mycology. Although leading the busy life of a pro- 

 fessional man he found time to contribute to various scientific 

 journals no less than forty papers on Natural History topics of 

 which rather more than half are on Fungi. 



By the death of Sir Charles Thomas Dyke Acland, Bart., who 

 joined the Society in 1899, we have lost a member who always 

 took a friendly and sympathetic interest in our work. 



Two promising young mycologists died during the last year, 

 Dr Arthur Eckley Lechmere and Mr Charles Ogilvie Farquharson ; 

 the former would have been a member of our Society had not 



