ADDRESS 



BY 



FRANCIS DAEWIN, M.A., Pii.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 



PRESIDENT. 



Before entering on the subject of my Address, I may be allowed to 

 refer to the loss which the British Association has sustained in the death 

 of Lord Kelvin. He joined the Association in 1847, and had been for 

 more than fifty years a familiar figure at our meetings. This is not the 

 occasion to speak of his work in the world or of what he was to his 

 friends, but rather of his influence on those who were personally un- 

 known to him. It seems to me characteristic of him that s(>mething of 

 his vigour and of his personal charm was felt far beyond the circle of his 

 intimate associates, and many men and women who never exchanged a 

 word with Lord Kelvin, and are in outer darkness as to his researches, 

 will miss his genial presence and feel themselves the poorer to-day. By 

 the death of Sir John Evans the Association is deprived of another 

 faithful friend. He presided at Toronto in 1897, and since he joined 

 the Association in 1861 had been a regular attendant at our meetings. 

 The absence of his cheerful personality and the loss of his wise counsels 

 will be widely felt. 



May I be permitted one other digression before I come to my subject ? 

 There has not been a Botanical President of the British Association since 

 the Norwich meeting forty years ago, when Sir Joseph Hooker was in 

 the chair, and in 'eloquent and felicitous words' (to quote my father's 

 letter) spoke in defence of the doctrine of evolution. I am sure that 

 every member of this Association will be glad to be reminded that Sir 

 Joseph Hooker is, happily, still working at the subject that his lifelong 

 labours have so greatly advanced, and of which he has long been recognised 

 as the honoured chief and leader. 



You will perhaps expect me to give a retrospect of the progress of 

 evolution during the fifty years that have elapsed since July 1, 1858, when 

 the doctrine of the origin of species by means of natural selection was 



b2 



