Ixviii. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



been found showing this phenomenon. In these the twelfth 

 caudal vertebra, which had been originally broken across, had 

 grown out into a slender styliform appendix 3~5th inch in 

 length and i'25th inch in diameter. From these three specimens 

 it would seem that dormice are able to partly grow new tails, 

 like lizards, when they are broken off. 



An interesting exhibition of old Natural History books has 

 lately been held at the British Museum (Natural History) in 

 South Kensington. Aristotle leads the way, followed by many 

 others, up to the time of Linnaeus. 



BOTANY. 



I do not think there is anything of an extremely important 

 nature in botanical science which has been discovered since our 

 last annual meeting. The chief subject discussed by the Inter- 

 national Botanical Congress at Vienna was that of botanical 

 nomenclature, which had been referred by a former Congress to 

 a committee. The year 1753, in which Linnaeus first established 

 his system of binomial names, was accepted as the earliest date 

 for priority, and other points were settled. It is greatly to be 

 wished that there might be some authority whose decision 

 should be unquestionable, to deal with this troublesome, though 

 necessary appendage to the study of Nature. 



It is hoped that a discovery by Kohler may enable use to be 

 made of the ultra-violet rays in the microscopic examination 

 of living cells, so that we may be able to see in life those 

 differentiations of structure which have hitherto only been 

 perceptible by the action of stains on the tissues. Certain 

 portions are more opaque than others to these rays, whereas 

 ordinary light would show no distinction. This opens a wide 

 field of investigation, and will doubtless produce interesting 

 results. 



A recently-published German book, by Professor Haberlandt, 

 deals with the light-perceiving organ of plants. He accounts 



