22 Yorkshire Naturalists at Selby. 



Crosshills, Saturday, July 14th. 



Grassington (August Bank Holiday week-end), August 

 4th to 6th. 



Mycological Meeting, Helmsley, in September. 



By the kind invitation of the Wakefield Naturalists' 

 Society, the Annual Meeting for 1917 will be held in that 

 City. 



The Hon. Treasurer (Mr. Edwin Hawkesworth), presented 

 the Balance Sheet, which showed a profit on the year's working, 

 despite the increased cost in connection with the publication 

 of the Union's magazine. The Report and Balance Sheet 

 were unanimously adopted. 



The announcement that Sir Archibald Geikie, O.M., K.C.B., 

 LL.D., of Haslemere, the eminent Geologist, had been 

 appointed President for the ensuing year, was most heartily 

 received. 



No change was made in the other responsible officials of 

 the Union. Mr. C. A. Cheetham was elected as Divisional 

 Secretary for South-west Yorkshire, and Mr. Sheppard as the 

 Union's delegate to the British Association Meeting. 



A vote of condolence was passed to Lady Payne-Gallwey, 

 on the death of her husband., the late Sir Ralph Frankland 

 Payne-Gallwey, Bart., a past President of the Union. 



At the commencement of the evening meeting, Mr. T. S. 

 Ullathorne, J. P., Chairman of the Selby U.D. Council, ex- 

 pressed the pleasure it gave him to welcome the members to 

 Selby. At the conclusion of the formal business, the retiring 

 President, Mr. Cheesman, delivered his Presidential Address 

 from the chair on ' Economic Mycology : the Beneficial and 

 Injurious Influences of Fungi.' After remarking upon the 

 hopeful and encouraging attitude of the public mind towards 

 science in relation to commerce and industry, Mr. Cheesman 

 paid a tribute to the early workers in Yorkshire Mycology, 

 especially praising the assiduous labours of past President, the 

 late Charles Crossland, and Mr. George Massee. He then 

 commented upon the great variation which existed amongst 

 fungi, and the enormous number of species known to science. 

 Quotations were made from the writings of the Ancients, 

 commencing from the time of Theophrastus (B.C. 287), and 

 to the work of a Selby-born man, Thomas Johnson, who 

 wrote an amended edition of Gerard's Herbal in 1633, and 

 therein described and figured certain species of fungi. The 

 economic value of fungi, especially as food materials ; their 

 use medicinally and otherwise to mankind ; their injurious 

 effects when not kept under control ; the relationship of 

 fungi to the higher plants ; the biological study of their or- 

 ganisms and the economic success resulting therefrom, and 

 the probable immunity of plants from fungoid pests, were 



Naturalist, 



