SECTION K.—BOTANY. 
SOME ASPECTS OF PLANT 
PATHOLOGY 
ADDRESS BY 
F. T. BROOKS, M.A., F.R.S., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 
SinceE the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association botany in Britain 
has suffered the loss of Prof. O. V. Darbishire, Prof. R. A. Robertson and 
Dr. R. C. Knight. Prof. Darbishire in particular was a staunch supporter 
of the British Association and those of us who attended the Bristol meeting 
in 1930 will remember the lively interest he took in the affairs of Section K. 
Prof. Darbishire is well known for his researches on Lichens, and he made 
notable contributions to their physiology, morphology and systematics. 
Of great kindliness of heart he was always eager to help others, and I recall 
with gratitude the large measure of assistance he gave me when I was 
revising Scott’s Flowerless Plants a few years ago. Without request 
he generously placed at my disposal several hitherto unpublished figures 
illustrating the morphology of Xanthoria parietina. Prof. Robertson had 
only recently retired from his long tenure as head of the botanical depart- 
ment of St. Andrews University where he had designed and organised 
new laboratories. Dr. R. C. Knight, unfortunately cut off in the prime 
of life, was a brilliant investigator at the East Malling Research Station, 
where he had made important contributions to our knowledge of the 
physiology of fruit trees. In a wider field botanists mourned the death 
earlier this year of Prof. Hugo de Vries whose researches have had a pro- 
found influence on plant physiology and genetics. His career will always 
be a landmark in the history of botany. 
During the meeting of the British Association held in Norwich in 1868 
I may remind you that Sir J. D. Hooker, then Director of the Royal 
Botanic Gardens, Kew, was the President of the Association and that the 
Rev. M. J. Berkeley, often referred to as the Father of British Mycology, 
was the President of Section D which then comprised both Botany and 
Zoology. 
Norwich, the metropolis of East Anglia, is a particularly appropriate 
place for a gathering of botanists, partly because of the great interest taken 
in our subject by the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society and the 
Norfolk Research Committee, and partly because of the varied character 
of the vegetation in the vicinity. Much important work has already been 
done on the vegetation of these interesting tracts of country. I need only 
recall the pioneer work on the vegetation of Blakeney Point by Prof. Oliver, 
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