1861.] TODMORDEN BOTANICAL SOCIETY. 83 



its larger capsule, and especially by the shape of its seeds, which 

 are rounder and more flattened than in L. rubi'um, some of them 

 winged; their colour dull brown, their shape broadly obovate, 

 obliquely pyriform, with one side nearly straight. 



TODMOKDEN BOTANICAL SOCIETY. 



We have much pleasure in informing our readers that bo- 

 tanical societies are increasing and prospering. There is a very 

 important colonial association of this kind, to which our atten- 

 tion has been called by a correspondent, and of which an account 

 will soon appear in the ' Phytologist.' The above-named Society 

 claims our first notice. 



On Monday evening, the 7th January, 1861, there was a large 

 gathering of botanists in the above-named town, and the pro- 

 ceedings appear, from the report in the ' Todmorden Post ' of Sa- 

 turday, the 12th, to have been of more than ordinary interest. 



An account of the festivities and hilarity and hearty enjoyment 

 of the opportunity afforded the friends of science for social, genial, 

 and scientific intercourse, is, of course, more gratifying to those 

 who were there and then present than it would be to our readers ; 

 therefore we content ourselves with merely stating that there is a- 

 good report of the meeting in the paper above quoted. 



We wish that the reporter had furnished the readers of his 

 paper with the faintest sketch, the merest outline, of the Presi- 

 dent's address, containing a review of the proceedings of 1860. 

 Mr. Stansfield electrified his hearers when he concisely recounted 

 the botanical trophies of the past season, in which the members 

 of the Todmorden Botanical Society appear to have borne no in- 

 significant part. 



The county of Lancashire has long been famed for the numbers 

 and energies of its local botanists, and it has recently added an- 

 other subject for congratulation, viz. a Field Naturalists' Society, 

 which now numbers more than three hundred strong. Its head- 

 quarters is Manchester, and the members, which are of both 

 sexes, have their meetings, excursions, soirees, etc. ; and their 

 perseverance, success, and enthusiasm in botanical pursuits are 

 highly to be commended. If botany be so prosperous in the 

 provinces, what might be its success if cultivated with as much 



