PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



and he therefore pointed out that all tlie endless varieties of 

 plants may be said to have arisen from a single type, a simple 

 fundamental form. Had he known that the leaf itself is built 

 up of cells, he would have declared that the cell is the real 

 fundamental organ, by the multiplication, transformation, and 

 combination of which in the hrst place the leaf is formed, and 

 that in the next by transformation, variation, and combi- 

 nation of leaves there arise all the varied beauties of form 

 and colour which we admire in its green parts, as well as the 

 organs of propagation in the flowers of plants. Is it to be won- 

 dered that this cell, this epitome of vegetable life, that is gifted 

 with so wondrous a potentiality, should possess a certain amount 

 of attractiveness even to many who have little or no scientific 

 knowledge '? Every cell is bound down by the laws of heredity, 

 but is to a certain extent subject to adaptation under the power 

 of surrounding influences. If anyone who has not done so, 

 desires to examine a simple vegetable cell, let him take a little 

 of the green stain so common on trees or old palings, which, 

 in a drop of water under the microscope, is resolved into a 

 multitude of round unicellular plants. The mode of multiplica- 

 tion of these may be observed, the use of the chlorophyll, which 

 gives the beautiful green colour, and the formative powers of 

 the protoplasm they contain. The woiii done is a type of that 

 performed by all vegetable cells, for a plant is a system of 

 individuals, each of which in its inception has a separate life. 



Carlyle, in a striking, but somewhat fanciful passage, says . 

 " All Nature and Life are but one garment, ' a living garment,' 

 woven, and ever a-weaving, in the ' loom of Time.' " What 

 precise ilea Mr. Carlyle had, I do not pretend to say — that it 

 was scientific is unlikely, for he always spoke contemptuously of 

 science ; nevertheless, the simile is fine, and the weaving still 

 goes on, the loom is never idle. The warp and the woof are 

 visible, but the motive power is hid in mystery. Some say that 

 the pattern once set, never changes, though parts may fade out 

 — that what it now is, it always has been. Others, that the 

 work began with a slender, filmv thread, that it widened and 



