TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K, 847 



published names under six genera. If we go on in this way we shall have to 

 invent a new Linnaeus, wipe out the past, and begin all over again. 



Although I have brought the matter before the Section, it is not one in which 

 this, or indeed any collective assembly of botanists, can do very much. While I 

 hope I shall carry your assent with the general principles I have laid down, it must 

 be admitted that the technical details can only be appreciated by experienced 

 specialists. All that can be hoped is a general agreement amongst the staffs of the 

 principal institutions in different countries where systematic botany is worked at ; 

 the free-lances must be left to do as they like. 



Ptjblications. 



I have dwelt at such length on certain aspects of my subject that perhaps, 

 without great injustice, you may retort on me the complaint of one-sidedness. 

 But when I survey the larger field of botany in this country, the prospect 

 seems to me so vast that I should despair even if I had my whole address 

 at my disposal of doing it justice. I think that its extent is measured by the way in 

 which the publications belonging to our subject are maintained. First of all, 

 we have access to the Royal Society, a privilege of which I hope we shall 

 always continue to take advantage for communications which either treat of 

 fundamental subjects, or at least are of general interest to biologists. Ne.xt to 

 this we have our ancient Linnean Society, with a branch of its publications hand- 

 somely and efficiently devoted to systematic work. Then we have the ' Annals of 

 Botany,' which has now, I think, established its position, and which brings together 

 the chief morphological and physiological work accomplished in the country. Lastly, 

 we have the ' Journal of Botany,' a less ambitious but useful periodical, which is 

 mainly devoted to the labours of British botanists. I remember there was a time 

 when I thought that this, at any rate, was an exhausted field. But it is not so ; 

 knowledge in its most limited aspects is inexhaustible if the labourer have the 

 necessary insight. The discoveries of Mr. Arthur Bennett amongst the potamogetons 

 of the Eastern Counties is a striking and brilliant instance. 



Besides the publication of the ' Annals ' we owe to the Oxford Press a splendid 

 aeries of the best foreign text-books issued in our own language. If the thouo-ht 

 has sometimes occurred to one's mind that we were borrowers too freely from our 

 indefatigable neighbours, I, at least, remember that the late Professor Eichler 

 paid us the compliment of saying that he preferred to read one of these monumental 

 books in the Enghsh translation rather than in the original. I believe it is no 

 secret that botany owes the aid that Oxford has rendered it in these and 

 other matters in great measure to my old friend the Master of Pembroke College, 

 than whom I believe science has no more devoted supporter. 



Paleobotany. 



I have said much of recent botany ; I must not pass over that of past ages. 

 Two notable workers in this field have passed away since our last meetmg. 

 Saporta was with us at Manchester, and we shall not. readily forget his personal 

 charm. If some of his work has about it a too imaginative character, the 

 patience and entire sincerity with which he traced the origin of the existing forms 

 of vegetation in Southern Europe to their ancestors in the not distant geological 

 past willalways deserve attentive study. But in the venerable, yet always youth- 

 ful, Wilhamaon we lose a figure whose memory we shall long preserve. With 

 rare instinct he accumulated a wealth of material illustrative of the vegetation of 

 the Carboniferous epoch, which, I suppose, is unique in the world. And this was 

 prepared for examination with incomparable patience either by his own hands or 

 under his own eyes. He illustrated it with absolute fidelity. And if he did not 

 in describing it always use language with which we could agree, nothing could 

 ruffle either his imperturbable good nature or the noble simplicity of his character. 

 Truth to tell, we were often in friendly warfare with him. But I rejoice to think 

 that before his peaceful end came he had patiently reconsidered and' abandoned aU 

 that we regarded as his heresies, but which were, in truth, only the old manner of 



