35° KNUBLEY : THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



a Geological Photographic Survey of the United Kingdom, with 

 Prof. Geikie as chairman and Mr. O. W. Jeffs as secretary. 

 Mr. Adamson was also on this Committee. This was a matter in 

 which local societies could render valuable aid, for it required some 

 person on the spot to take photographs of fleeting sections, such as 

 those exposed in railway cuttings. It was intended to keep a 

 register of all photographs which were accepted by the Committee. 



The Committee of the Biological Section was represented by 

 your delegate, who was authorised to bring two subjects before the 

 Meeting. 



Disappearance of Native Plants. — The work of this Com- 

 mittee had been restricted hitherto to Scotland, and the attention of 

 its correspondents had been confined to complete or threatened 

 extinction. They found that injudicious actions of botanists them- 

 selves and of botanical exchange clubs had been a potent factor in 

 the changes which had taken place, and that the 'dealer' and 

 ' collector ' figured largely, especially in connection with the dis- 

 appearance of ferns. They felt, however, that neither local dealers 

 nor their customers were, as a rule, amenable to any ordinary 

 appeal, or to sentimental considerations, and would suggest, there- 

 fore, that the local Natural History Societies or Field Clubs should 

 keep careful guard over any rare plants to be found within their 

 respective spheres of action, and by appeal to the owner, or in other 

 preferable way, should endeavour to effect their preservation. 



Invertebrate Fauna and Cryptogamic Flora of the 

 Fresh-Waters of the British Isles. — This was a new Committee, 

 with Canon Norman as chairman and Prof. J. C. Ewart as secretary. 

 Its object was to make a systematic investigation of the minute 

 animal and vegetable life of our inland waters. There was an 

 immense amount of latent microscopical energy in the country, 

 which this Committee might be the means of calling forth and 

 directing. Observers were requested to note the physical features 

 of the stream or lake which they studied, and to take the temperature 

 at different periods of the year, and in the case of lakes, at various 

 depths. 



Handbooks to Museums. — Mr. John Brown (Belfast) thought 

 it would be useful if the local societies would draw up notes on 

 some of the more interesting objects in their museums, that visitors 

 might know at once what were the chief features to which they 

 should direct their attention. 



Geography. — Signor J. Batalha-Reis, delegate from the Lisbon 

 Geographical Society, spoke of the good scientific results which 

 might follow from a conference of the Geographical Societies of the 



Naturalist, 



