C. PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



therefore, satisfactory that the committee at the seventh Inter- 

 national Zoological Congress lately held at Boston stated that 

 they had unanimously agreed on rules which would cover 90 per 

 cent, of the difficulties. In regard to British moths, a group 

 with the names of which I have been acquainted for many years, 

 probably at least half of those in use 30 years ago, have been 

 altered under the laws of priority, so that a list of to-day would 

 be unintelligible to a collector of 1878, and vice versa. The 

 great point seems to me to be to arrive at some permanent 

 decision, and if this committee can do this it will render a great 

 service to science and save immense waste of time. 



Botany. 



I may fitly begin my notes on the botany of the last twelve 

 months by referring to the great event which was celebrated with 

 due honour at Upsala at the end of iNIay, 1907, the bi-centenary 

 of Linnaeus, when our oldest Hon. INIember, i\Ir. Carruthers, was 

 one of the four Englishmen who had the distinction of Honorary 

 Doctor of Philosophy conferred upon him by the Swedish 

 University, and was crowned at the ceremony with a crown of 

 bay leaves from a tree planted by Linnaeus himself. The goose- 

 berr)' mildew, a disease imported from America, which has been 

 committing ravages in this countr)- for several years, and has 

 spread considerably, has now been the subject of an order of the 

 Board of Agriculture under the Destructive Insects and Pests 

 Bill lately passed, by which the importation of gooseberr}- and 

 currant bushes is prohibited and other powers are given. It is 

 to be regretted that this order is rendered comparatively useless 

 by permission being given to prune, instead of burning, the 

 affected bushes. Should the disease become general, as it 

 probably will, the results will be very serious. Another danger- 

 ous and recently imported disease not yet legislated for causes 

 black, warty excrescences on potatoes, and is spreading fast. 

 The British Association at the Corresponding Societies' meeting 



