Noy. 1906. | THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 215 
vegetative forms in widely separated groups of plants, and 
again of widely different forms within the same genus, The 
elue to the interpretation of these is to be found in environ- 
mental conditions, of which water is the dominant factor. 
From many starting-points and by many paths of evolution 
the same form has been attained in response to environment 
in the first series; from one centre many different forms 
have arisen in like response in the latter. It is a fertile 
field for research in nature, and it is satisfactory that under 
Sir John Murray the fresh-water aquatic flora of Scotland is 
being thoroughly investigated from this standpoint. The 
address was illustrated by a large series of lantern slides. 
The retiring President said :-— 
By the favour of the Honorary Assistant Secretary I am 
able to give you the following state of the Roll of the 
Society :— . 
Honorary Fellows: Royal 1, British 5, Foreign 25; 
Ordinary Fellows: Resident 111, Non-Resident 44; Corre- 
sponding Members 63; Associates 9; Lady Members 6. 
Total 264. 
During the past year the Membership of the Society has 
been strengthened by the addition of :— 
Honorary Foreign Fellows 3; Ordinary Fellows: Resident 
5; Corresponding Members 23; Associates 3. Total 34. 
And during the same period 2 Ordinary Fellows have 
resigned, and we have lost by death: Honorary British 
Fellow 1; Ordinary Fellows: Resident 1, Non-Resident 2, 
Corresponding Member i. Total 7. 
THOMAS HARDIE was an old Fellow of the Society, having 
joined if in 1868. In the earlier days of his membership he 
was a irequent attender at our meetings, in the business 
of which his retiring nature prevented him taking much 
active part. Latterly the calls of a large practice have 
kept him away. From a short notice of him in the 
“ Medical and Surgical Journal” for April 1906 I take the 
following :— 
After graduation as M.D. of the University of Edinburgh 
in 1858, Thomas Hardie acted as House Surgeon in the old 
Infirmary in Edinburgh, and thereafter studied abroad, and 
