686 EEPORT— 1888. 



Section D.— BIOLOGY. 



Peesidest of the Section.— W. T. THISELTON-DYER, C.M.G., M.A., B.Sc, 



F.R.S., F.L.S. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. 

 The President delivered the following Address : — 



Before we commence the formal business of the Section, I propose to invite your 

 attention to several points which have suggested themselves to me from a con- 

 sideration of the present position and progress of the study of botany in tliis 

 country. 



It is not so very long ago that at English universities, at least, the pursuit of 

 botany was regarded rather as an elegant accomplishment than as a serious occu- 

 pation. This is the more remarkable because at every critical point in the history 

 of botanical science the names of our countrymen will be found to occupy an honour- 

 able place in the field of progress and discovery. In the seventeenth century Hooke 

 aud Grew laid the foundations of the cell theory, while Millingtou, by discovering 

 the function of stamens, completed the theory of the flower. In the following 

 century Morison fir^t raised ferns from spores, Lindsay detected the fern prothallus, 

 Ray laid the foundations of a natural classification. Hales discovered root-pressure, 

 and Priestley the absorption of carbon dioxide and the evolution of oxygen by 

 plants. In the early part of the present one we have Knight's discovery of the true 

 cause of geotropism, Daubeny's of the effect upon the processes of plant-life of rays 

 of light of different refrangibility, and finally, the first description of the cell-nucleus 

 by R. Brown. I need not attempt to carry the list through the last half-century. 

 I have singled out these discoveries as striking landmarks, the starting-points of 

 important developments of the subject. It is enough for my purpose to show that 

 we have always had an important school of botany in England, which has contri- 

 buted at least its share to the general development of the science. 



I think at tbe moment, however, we have little cause for anxiety. The academic 

 chairs throughout the three kingdoms are filled, for the most part, with young, en- 

 thusiastic, and well-trained men. Botany is everywhere conceded its due position 

 as the twin branch with zoology of biological science. We owe to the enlightened 

 administration of the O.xford University Press the possession of a Journal which 

 allows of the prompt and adequate publication of the results of laboratory 

 research. The excellent work which is being done in every part of the botanical 

 field has received the warm sympathy of our colleagues abroad. I need only recall 

 to your recollection, as a striking evidence of this, the remarkable gathering of 

 foreign botanists, which will ever make the meeting of this Association at Man- 

 chester a memorable event to all of us. The reflection rises sadly to the mind that 

 it can never be repeated. Not many months, as you know, had passed before the 

 two most prominent figures in that happy assemblage had been removed from us 

 by the inexorable hand of death. In Asa Gray we miss a figure which we could 

 never admit belonged wholly to the other side of the Atlantic. In technical botany 

 we recognised him as altogether in harmony with the methods of work aud standard 

 of excellence of our own most distinguished taxonomists. But, apart from this, he 



