Presidential Address. Harold Wager. 307 



the great European War prevented it, and I am quite sure 

 therefore that you would wish me to mention them here. 



The tragic death of Dr Arthur Eckley Lechmere, on February 

 I4tli of this year, which occurred soon after his return to Eng- 

 land after a period of four years .as a prisoner of war in Ruh- 

 leben, deprives mycological science of an unusually gifted and 

 versatile investigator. The story of his life at Ruhleben and of 

 his setting up under most difficult and primitive conditions, of 

 a well-equij)pcd biological laboratory, in which teaching and 

 research were carried on, savours of the romantic and will not 

 easily be forgotten. By his unflagging industry and enthusiasm 

 he aroused a genuine interest in natural science which not only 

 alleviated the rigours of the prison camp, but gave to many an 

 impetus to scientific study. Surely such a piece of work will 

 take its place among the honourable records of distinguished 

 service rendered during the war. 



Mr Charles Ogil vie Farquharson whose untimely death occurred 

 through the collision at sea of the homeward bound SS. Burutu 

 on October 3rd 1918, was a promising tropical mycologist whose 

 work had already shown distinction and originality. 



By the death of Mr Anthony Wallis we have lost a mycologist 

 of high attainments and ability. As a member of the Yorkshire 

 Mycological Committee he had done excellent service to My- 

 cology, and he was also engaged in a special study of the Fungi 

 of Cumberland. Had he lived he would have been proposed as 

 a member of our Society at this meeting. 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEX AND NUCLEAR 

 FUSIONS IN THE FUNGI. 



In his Presidential Address at the first annual meeting of the 

 Society at Worksop in 1897 Mr George Massee gave some account 

 of mycological progress during the sixty years from 1837 to 

 1897, a period within which practically all the knowledge we 

 possessed of Fungi as living organisms had been acquired. 



The very considerable progress made however, during the 

 last decade of that period, in our knowledge of the sexuality 

 and reproduction of the Fungi was only slightly touched upon 

 by Massee, and it has seemed to me, therefore, that a brief dis- 

 cussion of some of the aspects of the problems of sex and nu- 

 clear fusions in the Fungi which have come to light during the 

 last thirty years might usefully occupy the time that remains 

 to me. 



In one of his interesting essays on "Problems of Life and 

 Reproduction" my friend Professor Hartog has taken me to 

 task for the use of the word sexuality in connection with the 



