Reports and Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 237 



conferred upou me, and hope to be permitted to give like help to other pupils from 

 the same country in the more immediate future. 



The President then presented the Murchison Medal to Professor 

 Albert Charles Seward, P.R.S., addressing him in the following 

 words :■ — 



Professor Seward, — The Murchison Medal is awarded by the Council to you as 

 a mark of appreciation of the services you have rendered to geological science by the 

 skill, zeal, and success with which you have for many years pursued the study of fossil 

 plants. Your researches have embraced a wide botanical range and an extended 

 series of geological formations, while the materials on which you have worked have 

 come to you from many different and distant regions of the globe. Your studies of 

 the Wealden flora have enabled you to present an ampler and more vivid picture of 

 the vegetation of later Mesozoic time than was before obtainable. Your discussions 

 of the Glussopteris-^ox& and of the Eiu'opean and Eastern Mesozoic floras hav'e been 

 full of suggestion to geologists. It is only by trained and persistent students, who, 

 like yourself, have an intimate knowledge of living forms, that the structure and 

 genetic relations of the plants and animals of past time can be satisfactorily elucidated. 

 We wish you many long years of active life, and we confidently expect that, from the 

 Chair of Botany in Cambridge, you will continue to advance the study of Palajobotany, 

 and win in this way sustain and extend the reputation of the great Cambridge 

 geological school. 



Professor Seward replied as follows : — 



Mr. President, — I desire to express my sincere thanks to the Council of the Society 

 for selecting me as the recipient of the Murchison Medal : the news of the award 

 came to me as one of the pleasantest surprises that I have ever had. A student is 

 not supposed to look forward to material roAvards for what little he is able to con- 

 tribute towards the advancement of Natural Knowledge ; but, when a rcAvard comes, 

 It awakens feelings no less pleasurable than those of a schoolboy receiving his first 

 prize. I little thought, sir, when I first became acquainted with your name nearly 

 thirty years ago, that I should ever have the pleasure and privilege of receiving 

 a Medal from your hands. As I have been for some years, ofiicially at least, 

 a botanist, the high compliment paid to me by the Society is the more appreciated. 

 This is, perhaps, one of the very few occasions when it is pardonable to speak of 

 oneself. The first stimulus I received which made me respond to the attraction of 

 Geology, was supplied by some University Extension Lectures delivered by my oldest 

 geological friend. Dr. Marr. A few years later I began to read Eotany at the 

 suggestion of Professor McKenny Hughes, a suggestion for which I have every reason 

 to be grateful ; but it was the fascination of geology which caused me to diverge 

 from the path originally marked out for me, and to give my allegiance to Natural 

 Science. 



On looking through the list of Murchison Medallists I was reminded that last year 

 the award was made to Mr. Harker ; though I have often regretted that Palajontology 

 did not secure his affection, I am proud to appear next him in so honourable a list. 

 In my undergraduate days Harker was one of my best friends, whose generous help 

 I am not, likely to forget. I rejoice also to find myself in the company of Professor 

 Goeppert and Professor Eoemer in the list of Medallists. It was once my privilege 

 to spend some weeks in examining the classic collections of Goeppert in the University 

 of Breslau, where the hospitality of the late Ferdinand Eoemer taught me that 

 differences in age and nationality count for little among those whose lives are devoted 

 to the common cause of Science. Professor Geinitz, another Murchison Medallist, 

 received me in Dresden twenty years ago with a friendliness which made a lasting 

 impression. The name of Professor Newberry reminds me of another friendly senior. 



To follow such men as I have named is not merely an honour, but a strong 

 incentive to do my utmost to render myself less unworthy of being permanently 

 associated with them in the records of the Society. 



In handing the Lyell Medal, awarded to Mr. Eichard Dixon Oldham, 

 to Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, F.R.S., for transmission to the recipient, the 

 President addressed him as follows : — 



