336 KEPORT— 1895. 



Section K.— BOTANY. 



Pbesident of the Sectioit. — W. T. Thiselton-Dter, M.A., F.R.S., O.M.G., 

 C.I.E., Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. 



The President delivered the following Address : — 



The estahlishment of a new Section of the British Association, devoted to Botany, 

 cannot hut be regarded hy the botanists of this country as an event of the greatest 

 importance. For it is practically the first time that they have possessed an inde- 

 pendent organisation of their own. It is true that for some years past we have 

 generally been strong enough to form a separate department of the old Biological 

 Section D, on the platform of which so many of us in the past have acted in some 

 capacity or other, and on which indeed many of us may be said to have made our 

 first appearance. We shall not start then on our new career without the remem- 

 brance of filial affection for our parent, and the earnest liope that our work may 

 be worthy of its great traditions. 



The first meeting of the Section, or, as it was then called, Committee, at Oxford 

 was held in 1832. And though there has been from time to time some difference 

 in the grouping of the several biological sciences, the two great branches of biology 

 have only now for the first time formally severed the partnership into which they 

 entered on that occasion. That this severance, if inevitable from force of circum- 

 stances, is in some respects a matter of regret, I do not deny. Specialisation is 

 inseparable from scientific progress ; but it will defeat its own end in biology if the 

 specialist does not constantly keep in touch with those fundamental principles which 

 are common to all organic nature. We shall have to take care that we do not 

 drift into a position of isolation. Section D undoubtedly afforded a convenient 

 opportunity for discussing many questions on which it was of great advantage that 

 workers in the two different fields should compare their results and views. But 

 I hope that by means of occasional conferences we shall still, in some measure, be 

 able to preserve this advantage. 



Retrospect. 



I confess I found it a great temptation to review, however imperfectly, the 

 history and fortunes of our subject while it belonged to Section D. But to have 

 done so would have been practically to have written the history of botany in this 

 country since the first third of the century. Yet I cannot pass over some few 

 striking events. 



I think that the earliest of these must undoubtedly be regarded as the most 

 epoch-making. I mean the formal publication by the Linnean Society, in 1833, 

 of the first description of 'the nucleus of the cell,' by Robert Brown.' It seems 



' Msc. Bot. Works, i. 512. 



