Noy. 1906. | THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 217 
ings of Bowhill and of allowing the growth of the indigenous 
trees and plants of the forest, more particularly of the oaks, 
which tradition, and indeed legal documents, assure us grow 
plentifully in Ettrick. In the “ History of the Berwickshire 
Naturalists’ Club” Dr. Farquharson gave, in 1878,an account of 
the outcome of this interesting experiment. From the aspect 
of the areas in the vicinity, Dr. Farquharson pictures the 
ground at Howebothom, before haining, as a bare, treeless 
pasturage, bearing heather, the common hill grasses, carices, 
and rushes. That has now been replaced by a picturesque 
wooded area, which strikes one by its boskiness—a certain 
richness and fulness in the outline of the trees and bushes. 
The lesson he drew from the Howebothom experiment he 
states thus :—“ In the old Forest of Ettrick there was not a 
stately and uniform growth of large timber. I infer that the 
ground along the valleys was clothed with a dense brushwood 
of hawthorn, birch, and sallow, mountain ash mingling with 
these, but flourishing more on the hill-sides; while above 
this lower growth rose at intervals many a semele tree—the 
fir, the ash, the oak; for although Howebothom offered no 
evidence that the oak is indigenous to the district, remains of 
it preserved in our peat bogs attest that it once flourished as 
a native in the vales of Ettrick and Yarrow. As to her- 
baceous plants, Howebothom has produced no rarities; but I 
think the present state of its vegetation shows that, given 
favourable conditions of soil and of shelter, certain strong 
srowing plants, such as Calluna vulgaris, Aira ceespitosa, Pteris 
aquilina, will strangle their weaker neighbours and occupy 
the ground to the exclusion of every other species.” Of 
course, draining of some wet parts has altered to some extent 
the original conditions of the area, and may have led to the 
exclusion of certain species. 
FRANK TOWNSHEND, a distinguished British botanist, was 
born at Rawmarsh, Yorkshire, where his father was rector, 
on December 5, 1822, and died on December 16, 1905, at 
Cimiez, Nice. Educated at Harrow and Trinity College, 
Cambridge, he early became acquainted with Babington 
and Newbould, with whom he took botanical excursions. 
An independent fortune procured him leisure to follow his 
botanical bent, and he took up successively the critical study 
