ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1898. 4I 



The Executive. — In accordance with the rule providing- for 

 the retirement of the three senior members of the Executive 

 ■each year, the Rev. WiUiam Fowler, Mr. George T. Porritt, and 

 Mr. H. T. Soppitt are ineligible for re-election at the present 

 Annual Meeting, and their colleagues desire to express their 

 sense of the inestimable value of the services which they have 

 rendered to the Union during a long series of years, each of 

 them having served on the Executive for more than twenty 

 years with a brief interval of retirement in one case. Their 

 colleagues venture to express the hope that the present interval 

 may be a brief one. 



The Secretariate. — No permanent colleague for Mr. Roebuck 

 has yet been found, but he and the Union have been placed 

 under much obligation for assistance rendered in organising 

 the excursions by Messrs. H. Speight, W. Gregson, Thomas 

 Sheppard, John Waddington, Rev. F. Young, M. B. Slater, and 

 H. H. Corbett. 



The Presidency. — Your Executive have pleasure in 

 announcing that the Presidency for 1899 has been offered to 

 and accepted by Mr. W. West, F.L.S., of Bradford, an old and 

 valued member of the Union, and one who is known not only 

 for his all-round knowledge of the botany, in all its ramifica- 

 tions, of the county, but also for his special attainments in the 

 study of the freshwater algae, in which he is now one of the 

 leading authorities in the world. 



In conclusion, your Executive have to express their thanks 

 to the distinguished physiologist whose term of office expires 

 with the present meeting, for the honour which he has conferred 

 upon the Union by his tenure of the office. 



