1007 



more and more be converted into a mere instrument for promoting the 

 personal interests of two or three individuals, 1 saw that some other 

 institution must manage the machinery for producing those more ge- 

 neral and less selfish services which had been first expected from the 

 Edinburgh Society. My conviction was, that the scheme of an associ- 

 ation for the mutual exchange of specimens, which had long been a 

 desideratum with several botanists, would certainly prove futile unless 

 the London Society could be raised from its obscurity and usolessness, 

 and be rendered generally serviceable to those who might become 

 members, whether resident or non-resident, present or distant. The 

 botanical inexperience of its then active managers, and the childish 

 character of its management, were serious impediments, it is true. 

 But I saw among the resident members a spirit of integrity and good- 

 will towards others, — a wish to render the institution equally service- 

 able to others as to themselves ; and on that moral superiority in the 

 London Society I relied for its ultimate success, if a sufficient share of 

 botanical experience could be united therewith. 



Under this conviction, and with this hope, I began to take some 

 share in the management of the London Society, though very little at 

 first. But the more I looked into its proceedings, the more imperfect 

 and inefficient they appeared to be, both in plan and in execution. 

 The correction of one erroneous course or method, for a time, appeared 

 only to give prominence to another almost as bad ; and the necessity 

 of changes for the better seemed to be ever recurring. A continued 

 endeavour to introduce abetter methods, and of giving something like 

 scientific precision to the doings of the Society, has thus been gradu- 

 ally leading me on, until I now find myself so much implicated that a 

 very large portion of the actual work and responsibility now falls upon 

 my own head and hands. Indeed, I may question whether the earnest 

 and indefatigable Secretary himself, whose disinterested exertions have 

 conduced so much to the Society's efficiency, is called upon to devote 

 more time and attention to its affairs. And I feel quite sure that he 

 need not devote more, if he vi^ould rest satisfied with doing what is 

 really needful, without letting his zeal force him upon the attempt to 

 do more than is necessary from him. The manner in which these 

 circumstances have influenced the Society's distribution of specimens, 

 and affected the accuracy of its labels, will presently appear. 



In the earlier years of the Society's existence, it was customary to 

 have an annual distribution by dividing among its contributors such 

 specimens as had been received in the year or season, some imperfect 

 arrangements being made for selecting the desiderata of the members, 



