PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 683 
For the problems that rise up before us are seen, as we become able to get at 
close quarters with them, to resolve themselves more and more into questions of 
chemistry and physics. I believe that it is only by the help of these elder branches 
of science that the accurate formulation, to say nothing of the final solution, of the 
problems will be achieved. A recent writer has suggested that life is not the 
cause of the reactions underlying the phenomena of life. Nevertheless the reactions 
that go on in the living body are obviously guided as to the particular directions 
they take by the apparatus or mechanism of the individual organism. When the 
conditions for the manifestation of life, and all that it implies, are satisfied, what 
will be produced depends partly on the structure of the apparatus itself (z.c., on 
the hereditary organisation), partly on the nature of the substances fed into the 
apparatus, and finally on the physical conditions under which it is working. Itis 
probably along the last two lines that investigation will continue to be pursued 
with more immediate profit ; but the goal will not be finally reached till we have 
solved the problem as to the nature of organisation itself. 
The following Papers and Reports were then read :— 
1. Charnwood Forest. By WiuL1AM BELL, 
The paper dealt with the situation, original boundary, physical features (un- 
doubtedly caused by volcanic action), inhabitants—people, animals, birds, &c.— 
and the vegetation of Charnwood Forest. 
The original flora can be to some extent restored by the extension of the 
vegetation found in the undisturbed country round Groby Pool to those parts of 
the forest which exhibit similar physical features. 
There is a suggestion of an alpine or sub-alpine flora by the survival of such 
plants as Empetrum nigrum, Cotyledon umbilicus, Ke. 
There has been a gradual contraction of the forest area with the vanishing of 
the woodland and bog. Edward I. gave permission for a park to be enclosed 
from Charnwood Forest. There is strong reason to believe that a stretch of 
country reaching from the River Soar, near Birstall, along the southern side, and 
on the western side right up to the border of Derbyshire, were so enclosed. If 
so, the ramifications of the forest reached considerably further than is generally 
held at the present day, and in fact joined up to the Leicester Forest.) Further 
contraction of the area was brought about by the allotments to the various adjoining 
parishes and the claims or gifts to the various religious orders who built abbeys 
and priories in and on the borders of Charnwood; and the final enclosure of 
the remainder, sanctioned by an Act of Parliament in 1808, which became 
effective in 1829. i 
The chief features of the woodland are oak, birch, beech, fir, ash, elm, &c. ; 
but the gradual clearance of all timber from the forest for building, naval, and 
fuel purposes led to the practical absence of timber for about two centuries, though | 
there has been partial reafforestation. 
Dr. Richard Pulteney’s (1746) list of plants found in the neighbourhood of 
Loughborough contains 315 records undoubtedly referring to Charnwood Forest ; 
a comparison of these records is made with the later ones of Bloxam and 
Coleman, Mary Kirby, and the ‘ Flora of Leicestershire’ (1886), and with our 
recent personal experience of plants on the forest area. 
Tables were given, showing the increase or decrease in quantity or number 
of stations of the plants named by Pulteney, and demonstrating the change in 
the character of the flora by subdividing the plants which exhibit a change 
into woodland, bank, rock, bog, water, heath, and field (arable and pasture) 
forms, 
Some features of the present flora were illustrated by lantern-slides and maps. 
