750 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



often find it desirable to have the Journal and to enjoy the other privileges 

 which full membership provides. 



Mr. W. Whitaker said that the Croydon N. H. and Scientific Society, of 

 which he vms president, had a number of separate sections, each with its com- 

 mittee, which met on their own days. The inevitable drawback was that each 

 section rather depended on the work -it could do, according as the membership 

 was strong or the reverse. 



Mr. William Parkin (Sheffield Naturalists' Club) mentioned that his club 

 also was divided into various sections, each of which met monthly for com- 

 parison of work, while the club annually published ' Transactions ' of what had 

 been done. He tendered thanks to the Conference for the admission of the 

 club to the list of Corresponding Societies. 



Mr. Mark L. Sykes (Manchester Microscopical Society) supported the opener's 

 words. Every branch of science, especially biological, being so dependent upon 

 the other, his society had extended its operations, and is practically a biological 

 society, with sections, giving the members practical demonstrations on zoological, 

 botanical, pathological, and allied subjects, enabling it to issue valuable 'Annual 

 Transactions.' By the amalgamation of small societies into one composite whole, 

 especially in the smaller towns, more practical and useful work would be 

 carried out than by the small divided efforts of minor societies. 



Mr. W. M. Webb and the Chairman also joined in the discussion, and Sir 

 Daniel Morris replied. 



Mr. Wilfred Mark Webb (Selborne Society) thus introduced a discussion on 

 the following subject : — 



The Protection of Plants. 



Those of you who happen to be secretaries of societies well know that the 

 usual reward for putting forward what is generally considered to be a good 

 idea is to be asked to carry it out. 



Now, when I fulfilled the request of our Committee made to all Correspond- 

 ing Societies, and modestly suggested a matter that might with advantage be 

 brought before this Conference, I naturally did so in the pious hope that it 

 would be among those chosen for consideration. 



I am therefore much pleased that a discussion on plant-protection, which 

 was the one that I advocated, has been arranged, but I have been further re- 

 warded beyond my deserts, as an ordinary member of this Conference, by being 

 asked to introduce the subject. 



It is needless to bring forward any special arguments to prove that many 

 plants are being exterminated. This is shown by the continual complaints 

 which appear in the newspapers, as well as by the fact that a Committee of 

 the British Association between the years 1887 and 1892 issued five reports on 

 the disappearance of British plants, while it should further be mentioned that 

 Mr. A. E. Horwood dealt with the extinction of Cryptogams at the Leicester 

 Meeting of the British Association, and last year read a most detailed and 

 comprehensive paper on the subject before the South-Eastern Union of Scientific 

 Societies. 



The necessity for protection is obvious, and the matters which most concern 

 us are, what has been done and what can be done to mitigate the effects of 

 those causes of extermination which we cannot remove, or which are difficult to 

 counteract, as well as what means can be devised to get rid of those which are 

 easily preventable. 



Turning to Mr. Horwood's paper, we find that he gives no fewer than forty 

 causes for the extinction of the plants with which he deals, and it will be con- 

 venient to consider his list, which is ready to our hands. Of the twelve main 

 causes which he enumerates, four come under the heading of climate, which 

 we may leave on one side. The others are all effects of civilisation and the 

 accompanying extension of industries. The first three of these are agricultural, 

 and include the reclamation of land by drainage or otherwise, the cultivation 

 and planting of new areas, and the deforestation of others. 



Considering these, which in the majority of cases are necessary evils from 

 our point of view, the solution of the difficulty seems to lie in the formation 



