2S PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



of the members that the island was visited in 1883 with 

 one of the most devastating volcanic eruptions which had 

 occurred for some time, and by which the northern part of 

 the island entirely disappeared. Before the catastrophe the 

 area of the island was about 35 square miles, of which eleven 

 only remain. Dr. Treub found in June, 1886, a littoral flora 

 grown from ocean-carried seeds, consisting of nine species, which, 

 with the exception of the Javan grass, belong to the list of plants 

 which stock the new coral islands within the tropics. The surface 

 of the island was covered with a thin layer of confervoid algse 

 belonging to six species, two mosses, and eleven species of ferns. 

 The island was covered from the top to below sea-level with a layer 

 of ashes, varying from 300 to 200 feet in thickness, so that all 

 vegetation was destroyed. As the island is uninhabited and unin- 

 habitable, man could have had nothing to do with planting this new 

 vegetation. Mr. Carruthers, keeper of the Botanical Department 

 of the British Museum, considers that the plants, with perhaps a 

 single exception, were grown from small seeds, or spores, carried 

 by the wind. In the case of new islands, whether of coral or 

 volcanic origin, the first vegetation is generally born to them by 

 water and air currents. Birds, too, are occasionally introducers of 

 new plants. The American plant, Eriocaulon septangulare, With., 

 for instance, is found on the western coasts of Scotland and Ireland, 

 and nowhere else in Europe ; Mr. Carruthers thinks its introduction 

 to be due to the agency of an American bird. The occasional 

 occurrence of American birds on our shores, is a well-known 

 fact. 



I began this address in terms of sorrow and regret ; I must now 

 close it in a similar strain, affecting my relations with the club as 

 their President. That "Every dog has its day" is an adage 

 of some truth, and the day has unfortunately arrived when 

 I am reluctantly obliged to place my resignation in your hands. 

 It is now 15 years since I was elected your President, an honour 

 you have conferred upon me annually until the present moment. I 

 should have been unable to fulfil the duties of the office had I not 



