TRANSACTIONS 



SCOTTISH ARB0R1CULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I. Address delivered at the Nineteenth Annual Meeting. By 

 Hugh Cleghoen, M.D., F.E.S.E., late Conservator of 

 Forests, Madras. 



Gentlemen, — On taking the chair to which the General Council 

 has called me, my first duty is to thank you for the honour conferred 

 in electing me as President of this Society, an honour which I had 

 little reason to expect, considering that twenty-six years of my life 

 have been spent out of Scotland, and that I am personally unknown 

 to a large proportion of the members. I greatly regret that the 

 notice given to me was so short, that it has not been possible for me 

 to prepare an address suited to the occasion; but I beg to assure you 

 that I will discharge to the best of my ability the duties of my 

 office, and exert myself to promote the interests of the Society. 



Eighteen years have elapsed since our association was formed, and 

 though at first its growth was slow, it has been steady. It now 

 embraces in its membership about GOO names, and advances with 

 enlarged prospects of usefulness. The printed Transactions supplied 

 to all our members have reached the seventh volume; these give the 

 best clue to what is being done amongst us. In looking over them 

 for my own information, and for suggestive material in addressing 

 you, I observe a decided improvement in the prize reports; some are 

 very valuable papers, while none are without interest. These records 

 show a wish on the part of many of the members to enlarge their 

 stock of knowledge, and here I may remark, that though we may 

 often go over what appears to be the same ground, we must not 

 relax our exertions as if we had attained to the full extent of know- 

 ledge; let us make sure of what we have already acquired, and then 



VOL. VII. PART I. A 



