94 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF LEICESTER AND DISTRICT 
that it had been first propounded twenty-five years before by Prof. 
Schwendener, that it had at first been met with contempt and ridicule, 
and was still disputed. The theory was: ‘ Each Lichen is not a simple 
plant at all; but each is really an establishment of two plants living in 
intimate union and for their mutual benefit. Every Lichen 1s a Fungus 
and an Alga.’ 
In October 1894 she (Mrs. C. D. Nuttall, B.Sc.) read a paper entitled 
‘ Symbiosis.’ She emphasised the difference between Symbiosis and 
Parasitism, and told that for many years Symbiosis was only known to 
exist in Lichens. But Prof. Marshall Ward, a great botanist, ‘ of 
whom England may be proud in these days of the ascendancy of German 
scientists,’ had described two other examples of Symbiosis: at the roots 
of many trees, beeches, willows, poplars, etc., and zm the roots of 
leguminous plants.1® 
In 1897 Prof. Marshall Ward lectured to the Society on ‘ Symbiosis.’ 
‘ Mendel’s Discoveries in Heredity ’ was the title of a paper read on 
January 8, 1904, by Mr. C. C. Hurst, F.L.S., of Burbage. He added 
to the paper a list of sixty books and articles bearing on this subject ; 
fifty-one of these had been published in the years 1900-1904. He read 
two more papers on ‘ Mendelism,’ and in February 1908, in a lecture on 
‘ Mendel’s Law of Heredity and its application to Man,’1? he told that 
after, by his own experiments and observations, witnessing Mendelian 
phenomena in peas, poppies, sweet-peas, antirrhinums, primulas, tomatoes, 
orchids, and other plants, as well as in poultry, rabbits and horses, he had, 
with the willing co-operation of the inhabitants of Burbage, compiled 
tables showing the working of Mendel’s law in the inheritance or non- 
inheritance of eye-colour, hair-colour, and musical sense. 
An important paper on ‘ The Cryptogamic Flora of Leicestershire,’ by 
Mr. A. R. Horwood, was read in March 1907. It is somewhat amplified 
in the Transactions, vol. xiii, pp. 15-87. 
Steady work was carried on by the Botanical Section till the outbreak 
of the war. During the war the work was hampered, but not suspended. 
The report of the Section to the Council in vol. xx of the Transactions, 
a volume covering the years 1915 to 1919, stated that meetings had been 
held fairly regularly during the winter months throughout the war, but 
the attendance had not been good. Owing to train difficulties the summer 
excursions had been very few, but there had been some footpath walks 
and some visits to gardens. ‘The report of the Flora Committee recorded 
with regret the deaths of its members, Dr. Finch, Mr. Pattison and 
Mr. Cooper, and also of Lieutenant G. E. Mercer, who was killed in 
action. His paper on the Flora of Belgrave and Birstall had been pub- 
lished in the last volume of the Transactions. Mr. A. E. Wade, whose 
paper on the Flora of Aylestone and Narborough was in the present 
volume, had returned from active service with an injured arm; despite 
this he was, as he had been before, giving valuable aid in getting the 
Herbarium into good order. The work of the Committee had been 
16 There were other papers by Mrs. Nuttall, and she gave a lecture on Trees 
to the Society in October 1910 (Tvansactions, xv, 26-45). 
17 Tyansactions, xii, 35-48. 
