PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 7 



BOTANY. 



The Address of the President of the recently separated 

 section of Agriculture in the British Association contains 

 many valuable suggestions as to the problems in that 

 branch which at present seem most pressing, but holds 

 out little hope of their being solved without much patient 

 and careful work. With regard to plant diseases, he 

 lays stress on the importance of doing something more 

 than carrying out the usual preventive measures when the 

 disease appears. We may discover strains of the plant that 

 are less susceptible to the disease, as has been and is done in 

 the case of potatoes and other plants, but we may in time go 

 a step further, and get some knowledge of what it is that 

 causes this resistance to attack. In ourselves and animals 

 this subject has received far more attention and met with a 

 certain amount of success. Weight is given to the above 

 remarks by the fact that a scheme of research in connection 

 with Agriculture has been sanctioned by the Governmenb 

 under which specialists will be appointed and scholarships 

 provided, as well as other means for the investigation of 

 agricultural and farming matters generally, both animals 

 and plants. An interesting discussion took place at the 

 British Association as to whether any British plants had sur- 

 vived the Glacial period in this country or whether they 

 were all exterminated at that epoch, all our present plants 

 being of more recent introduction. On this point, however, 

 there was much difference of opinion, two of our distinguished 

 Honorary Members, Mr. Clement Reid and Dr. Wallace, 

 taking opposite sides, so that we may regard the question 

 as still open. In his communication, Dr. Wallace stated 

 that there was absolutely no doubt that the whole of the flora 

 of the Azores had been introduced there, across a width of 

 ocean of about 1,000 miles, during the Tertiary Period, but 

 he thought that some plants had survived the Glacial period 

 in this country. The recent Antarctic expeditions have 

 shewn that the flora of that region is less rich than that of 



