36r 



BOTANY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



Wm. G.SMITH. B.Sc, Ph.D. 



The proceedings of Section K are generally fairly placid, and 

 this year was no exception. There was nothing very startling 

 to give rise to fierce discussions, nor was there any undercurrent 

 of hot criticism in the smokerooms, such as was evident, say, 

 in Section C. The presidential address of Professor Trail was 

 the appeal of a veteran field botanist (who has probably spent 

 more of his life out-of-doors than any other British botanist) 

 for more work to be done on the British flora. In spite of 

 numerous country and county floras, much remains to be 

 done in ascertaining the distribution of species, how they came 

 to be where they are, and in what surroundings they live. 

 Many smaller contributions are in danger of being lost, and 

 field naturalists as a body really know much which has never 

 been published. What is wanted is a closer grouping of botanists 

 to carry out " a well-organised botanical survey of the British 

 Islands.' In Committee, the President carried his suggestions 

 further, by having a small Committee appointed to promote 

 such a survey. 



The reading of papers occupied the whole or part of six 

 days. The quality of the contributions varied considerably, some 

 certainly carried the stamp of careful study, others gave the 

 impression of being scrappy. As usual, many authors intro- 

 duced long and laborious details, quite forgetting that a Section 

 is not a body of submissive students, but is made up mainly 

 of speakers, and therefore bad listeners. It is a relief to 

 hear a theme neatly and tersely handled, if details are wanted 

 these can generally be got from the author at some of the 

 many social functions, or will appear when the paper is pub- 

 lished. Plant physiology produced several good papers, 

 notably the contributions on the Biochemistry of Respiration, 

 by Dr. F. F. Blackman and members of the Chemistry Section. 

 Translocation of sugars in green leaves was neatly handled by 

 Mr. S. Mangham, and Dr. F. Darwin described a useful apparatus 

 for observing the action of stomata. The ' nuclear ' papers 

 included a demonstration by Professor Blackman, of Leeds, 

 on some new features in the male nuclei of Lilium. The 

 energetic workers on past and present Gymnosperms and 

 Pteridophytes were also well to the fore. Ecology was 



1910 Oct. I. 



