692 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 
Section K.—BOTANY. 
PRESIDENT oF THE SEcTION.—Miss Eruen Saraant, F.L.S. 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. 
The President delivered the following Address :— 
We were welcomed to Birmingham last night, and now—made free of the city— 
we assemble this morning to justify our position as its guests. But, before 
entering on the work of the Section your President is authorised, and even 
required by custom, to glance at the events of the past year in the botanical 
world. 
My predecessor in this chair had a great loss to record in the death of 
Sir Joseph Hooker, the doyen of British botanists, and a familiar figure at so 
many meetings of this Association, where we were proud to feel that he belonged 
to our Section. This year we have no peculiar grief, but we join with the 
whole Association in lamenting the death of Lord Avebury. We have some 
right to offer a special tribute to his memory, since several of his published 
works were on botanical subjects. His book on the ‘Fertilisation of Flowers’ 
in the ‘ Nature Series’ opened a new world to many non-botanical readers, and 
there are probably others here besides myself who have reason to be grateful 
to him for that charming introduction to field botany, and for the companion 
volume on ‘ Flowers, Fruits, and Leaves.’ The great mass of first-hand informa- 
tion on the external characters of seedlings, contained in two massive volumes 
under the modest title of ‘A Contribution to our Knowledge of Seedlings,’ was 
collected under his direction and put together by himself. It is not only a 
book of reference to students of vegetable embryology, but no doubt played its 
part in reviving interest in that important subject. The work which he pub- 
lished was, however, the least part of Lord Avebury’s contribution to Natural 
History. He represented a small but most distinguished class of naturalists, 
amateurs in the best sense of the word, since they work for pure love of the 
subject. Whether they happen to be men of affairs in great positions, like Lord 
Avebury, or artisans devoting their Saturday afternoons to original research in 
Natural History, they are the salt of the subject, preserving it from the worst 
effects of a purely professional and academic standard. 
There is one more event of the past year to be mentioned before entering 
on the professional portion of this Address. Section K has made a great innova- 
tion in choosing a woman for its President this year, and I will not refrain 
from thanking you in the name of my sex because I happen to be the woman 
chosen. And, though I must and do feel very keenly the honour you have done 
me as a botanist in electing me to this position, yet that feeling is less prominent 
than gratitude for the generosity shown to all women in that choice. Speaking 
in their name, I may venture to say that the highest form of generosity is that 
which dares to do an act of justice in the face of custom and prejudice. 
The main subject of my Address this morning 1s the Development of Botanical 
Embryology since 1870. 
