TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D.— DEPT. ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 581 



the national mausoleum, and saw bis coffin followed not only by scientists and lay- 

 men, but by priests of various religious denominations, all of whom sought by the'ir 

 presence to testify to their recognition of his great worth ; and perhaps some to 

 atone in a measure for the imjust things which they might have said or thought 

 about him, when they were unacquainted with his character, and only half- 

 acquainted with the object and nature of his labours. 



But although our hearts are still sore at the remembranci of our loss, tliere are 

 many things the reflecting upon which may weU console and reconcile us to it. 



In the first place he had been spared to us till such a time as we were able to 

 Avalk without further needing the assistance of his guiding hand ; and the work 

 which had occupied him all his life had been so far finished that it can now without 

 difficulty be carried on by his disciples. 



In the next place, his life, although far from having been free from suffering, 

 had been prolonged to a green old age, and he was able and delighting to work 

 almost to the very day of his death. lie had the satisfaction of looking back upon 

 a long life happily and worthily spent. He had the satisfaction of living to see 

 the doctrines which he had promulgated gradually acknowledged, and finally uni- 

 versally accepted. He was surrounded by devoted friends, and regarded by all 

 naturalists with a reverence and affection such as has fallen to the lot of none since 

 the time of Linnaeus. 



If, however, we have consolation in the remembrance that the lamp of Charles 

 Danvin, which had burned so In-ightly, had also burned its full time, we have none 

 such in the case of that other bright light, which has lately been so unexpectedly 

 extinguished. In the lamentable death of Francis Balfour, at' the early age of thirty, 

 we can only feel unmixed regret. 



He had already done great things, and we had a right to hope that he would 

 have lived to achieve greater things still. 



He had just been appointed to a professorship in Cambridge, where everyone 

 confidently looked forward to his doing in that University for morphology what his 

 master and friend had done before him in physiology ; to his inspiring his pupils 

 with a true love of his branch of science, and making them, like himself, original 

 observers and workers. Everyone, too, made no doubt but that he would further 

 follow out those elaljorate researches in the development of the early stages of 

 growth in animals, which had already made his name known and honoured 

 wherever in the world the subject of animal morphology is studied. 



But all these hopes have been cruelly destroyed by that fatal accident which 

 occurred to him while travelling in search of recreation and health on the Alps 

 of Savoy. W^ithout impiously wishing too closely to scrutinise the decrees of 

 heaven, we cannot help asking why he, who could be so badly spared, should have 

 been taken, while the thousands, who woidd not have been so much missed, 

 and who every year risk somethnig in climbing the Alps, should yet escape 

 without injury. 



It is now eight years since Mr. Bentham communicated to this department, at 

 Belfast, his report 'On the Recent Progress and Present State of Systematic 

 Botany,' and I propose to take for the subject of my address to-day the advances 

 which have been made in this branch of botany since that date. 



_Mr. Bentham, for the more easy consideration of the subject, classified the 

 various works relating to systematic botany under six heads. And I do not think 

 I can adopt a more convenient plan than to follow upon the same lines. 

 The six heads were as follows : — 



1. Oi-dines Plantarum. Being general treatises on descriptive reviews of the 

 natural orders. 



2. Genera Plantarum. Being the methodical enumeration and descriptions of 

 genera. 



•3. Species Plantarum. Being the methodical enumeration and descriptions of 

 species. 



4. Monographs of separate orders or genera, sub-genera, or species. 



5. Floras of separate coimtries or districts. 



6. Detached and miscellaneous specific descriptions. 



