130 REPORT— 1887. 



The present Keporfc includes only four of the six sectional headings 

 under which we proposed to treat the subjects entrusted to us. Want of 

 time and of data have made it impossible for us to consider with suffi- 

 cient seriousness the questions of the ideal museum, and of the best prac- 

 tical methods for approaching it. Yet, as the answering of these questions 

 forms the chief object of our inquiry, we ask to be reappointed for another 

 year, that we may have the opportunity of collecting information by two 

 other important methods which are at present practically untried, viz., the 

 personal visitation of a number of museums in different parts of the country, 

 and inquiries respecting those which exist in Europe and America ; 

 and that thus, with the whole statistics before us, we may endeavour 

 to formulate such a scheme for the working of provincial museums as 

 would bring out their fullest capacity for educational purposes. 



First Report of the GoTnmittee, consisting of Professor Hillhouse, 

 Mr. E. W. Badger, and Mr. A. W. Wills, for the purpose of 

 collecting information as to the Disappearance of Native Plants 

 from their Local Habitats. By Professor Hillhouse, Secretary. 



The question of the extirpation of native' plants from many localities 

 was brought before the members of the Birmingham Natural History 

 and Microscopical Society in 1884 by Mr. A. W. Wills, and an article on 

 the subject communicated by him to the ' Midland Naturalist ' for 

 August of that year.^ At the meeting of the Midland Union of Natural 

 History Societies at Birmingham in June 1885, Mr. Wills, in conjunction 

 with the other two members forming this present Committee, brought 

 the matter up ; in the first instance before the Council of the Union, and 

 afterwards, with their cordial approval, before the Conference of Delegates 

 from the societies constituting the Union. An ' appeal,' passed by this 

 Conference, and circulated amongst scientific societies, was, by request of 

 the then secretaries, laid by the writer of this Report before the Com- 

 mittee of Section D of the British Association at its meeting at 

 Aberdeen, 1835, and by it referred, with cordial approval, to the Con- 

 ference of Delegates of Corresponding Societies. (See the proceedings 

 of this Conference in the Report for the Birmingham meeting, 1886.) 



Between the dates of the Aberdeen and Birmingham meetings a 

 considerable mass of information bearing upon this question was collected 

 from diflferent sources, and letters of approval were received from various 

 quarters, including one expressing the full sympathy of the President and 

 Council of the Royal Society with the efforts of the Midland Union for 

 the preservation of the native flora of Great Britain ; and finally, at the 

 Birmingham meeting, 1886, these initial labours were crowned with their 

 highest possible I'eward in the constitution of the present Committee. 



For the purpose of carrying out its objects the Committee have 

 addressed to local Natural History Societies and Field Clubs, and to local 

 botanists, a circular asking the following questions : — 



1. Have any plants, of comparative rarity or otherwise, disappeared 

 from your local flora in recent years? If so, kindly enumerate them, 



' Vol. vii. p. 209. 



