TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. — PRESIDENTIAL APPKESS. 477 



Section K.— BOTANY. 

 Presidf.xt of the Section:: A. B. Kendle, M.A., D.Sc, F.E.S. 



WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER G. 



The President delivered the following Address : — 



SixcE our last meeting the Great War has continued to hold chief place in our 

 lives and thoughts, and in various waj's, and to a greater or less degree, has 

 influenced our work. In the case of many Botany has had for the time being to 

 be eet aside, while others have been able to devote only a part of their time 

 to scientific work. On the other hand, it is gratifying to note that some have 

 been aTTle to render helpful service on lines more or less directly connected with 

 their own science. The trained botanist has shown that he may be an eminently 

 adaptable person, capable, after short preparation on special lines, of taking up 

 positions involving scientific investigation of the highest importance from the 

 standpoints of medicine and hygiene. 



We have to regret the loss of a promising young Cambridge botanist, Alfred 

 Stanley Marsh, who has made the supreme sacrifice for his country. Happily, 

 in other cases lives have been spared and we are able to welcome their return 

 to the service of botany. 



In common with our fellow-botanists throughout the world, we have learnt 

 with sorrow of the death of one of the kindliest and most versatile exponents 

 of the science. Count Solms-Laubach, whom we have welcomed in years past 

 as a guest of our Section. 



May I also refer to the recognition recently given by the Royal Society to ' 

 the services of two of our Colonial botanists ?— Mr. J. H. jMaiden, of Sydney, 

 who has done so much in Australia for the development of botany and its 

 applications in his position as Government Botanist and Director of the Botanic 

 Gardens at Sydney, and whose kindness some of us have good cause to remember 

 on the occasion of the visit of this Association to Sydney in 1914 ; and Professor 

 H. H. W. Pearson, of Cape Town, who is doing useful work of botanical 

 e.xploration in South-West Africa. 



A little more than two years ago, during the enforced but pleasant leisure 

 of our passage across the Indian Ocean to Australia. I was discussing with our 

 President for the year the possibility of a war with Germany. He was con- 

 fident that sooner or later it was bound to come. I was doubtful. ' But what 

 will prevent it?' asked my companion. 'The common sense of the majority,' 

 was my reply. He was right and T was wrong, but I think he was only less 

 surprised than myself when next evening we heard, by wireless, rumours of the 

 outbreak of what rapidly developed into the great European war. But even a few 

 weeks later, when Germany was pressing westwards, and the very existence of 

 our Empire was threatened, we hardly began to appreciate what it would 

 mean, and we still talked of the possibility of an International Botanical 

 Congress in 1915. 



We know more now, and I need not apologise for considering in my Address 

 the part which botanists can take in the near future, especially after the war. 

 For one thing at least is certain : we are two years nearer the end than when 

 it began, and let us see to it that we are not as backward in preparing for po.st- 

 war as we were for war problems. 



