316 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 



Section K.— BOTANY. 



President of the Section: Sir Daniel Morris, K.O.M.G., M.A., 



D.Sc, D.C.L., LL.D. 



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9. 



The President delivered the following Address : — 



It was with a feeling of great responsibility that I accepted the invitation to 

 preside at the meeting of the Botanical Section of the British Aseociation and 

 to follow in the footsteps of the distinguished men who have occupied this 

 position, and especially at this time when the circumstances of the country 

 and the Empire call so largely for the co-operation of all interested in botanical 

 research and the application of science to reconstruction after the war. It is well 

 to bear in mind that while the justification of science depends upon its general 

 application to the affairs of life, we must not forget that the first conditions of 

 its assured progress is the recognition of the patient and exhaustive investi- 

 gations of the laws of Nature which are immutable. The consolation is that what 

 we wrest from Nature holds good for all time. 



During the great war which hae now happily been brought to a close it has 

 been made abundantly clear that in Botany, as in other applied sciences, we must 

 rely in future less on chance individual effort and initiative. We must co-oper- 

 ate our efforts and organise them at every stage, bearing in mind that we shall 

 always require the services of the worker in pure science to solve those larger 

 problems of national importance which confront us. We must be armed by 

 science, or we shall be placed at a great disadvantage in the great struggle now 

 before us. We are told that it is absolutely necessary for the prosperity and 

 safety of the country that the development of the resources of the Empire and 

 the production of our industries must be on a scale greatly in excess of anything 

 we have hitherto achieved. As an Imperial people it is our duty to develop our 

 resources to the fullest extent. 



Fortunately, a great change is taking place in the attitude of the Government 

 and the State towards Science, and it ie noticeable also in the relations of Science 

 to industry and commerce. 



Since we last met we have lost a number of devoted workers in Botany. 

 Professor Daniel Oliver was the highly esteemed and valued coadjutor of both 

 the Hookers, and his conscientious devotion to duty and unrivalled knowledge of 

 flowering plants raised him to a distinguished position among botanists of all 

 countries. 



Another Kew man. George Edward Massee, the well-known mycologist and 

 plant pathologist, has left an enduring mark on British mycology. 



Clement Eeid occupied a iinique position in relation to geology and botany. 

 His book on ' The Origin of the British Flora ' was an important addition to 

 botanical literature. Jointly with Mrs. Reid he produced a quarto monograph 

 of the Pliocene Flora. Ethel Sargent, the President of this Section in 1913, 

 was one of the most gifted and distinguished workers in Botany. She was the 

 first woman to serve on the Council of the Linnean Society. Her name will long 

 be associated with the well-supported and well-reasoned theory of the origin of 

 Monocotyledons. 



In the early part of last year another gap in the ranks of women botanists 



