G. T. PORRITT : PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. I07 



for it. In our field meeting's everyone meets on equal footing", 

 and in the mutual intercourse between class and class, it is 

 inevitable that each will find out the good qualities of the other, 

 and admiration of, and respect for these, completely oust in the 

 one, those paltry and contemptible notions of superior caste so 

 largely prevailing in society now-a-days ; and in the other those 

 prejudices through which, often not without reason, they have 

 been accustomed to regard them. 



As I stated at the commencement of this address, our field 

 excursions were instituted with the object of working out the 

 fauna and flora of our county ; and that its object has already 

 to a considerable extent been fulfilled, anyone looking through 

 the Union's Transactions, and especially through its separate 

 county lists, will at once acquiesce. Mr. F. Arnold Lees' 

 ' Flora of A¥est Yorkshire ' is a monument of painstaking" 

 research and compilation. And the same may be said of Mr. 

 J. G. Baker's ' North Yorkshire ' ; of Mr. W. Eagle Clarke's 

 'Birds of Yorkshire' ; Messrs. Clarke and Roebuck's 'Yorkshire 

 Vertebrata ' and others. We have published my own lists of 

 ' Yorkshire Lepidoptera ' and ' Yorkshire Neuroptera and 

 Trichoptera' ; Messrs. J. W. Taylor and W. Nelson's 'List of 

 Yorkshire Mollusca ' ; Mr. Robt. Kidston's 'Yorkshire Carboni- 

 ferous Flora ' ; Mr. W. West's ' Alga-Flora of Yorkshire ;' 

 whilst the Lists of ' Yorkshire Coleoptera ' and other similar 

 lists are in course of publication. I believe that all these 

 lists are as accurate as it was possible to make them, and may 

 be consulted with the g"reatest confidence. 



I have drawn on your patience long enough, and can only 

 just allude to the advance in our knowledge made through our 

 numerous committees of research. These committees work 

 more individually than through our field meetings, and with 

 perhaps g^reater beneficial results. One need only turn to the 

 pages of our 'Transactions,' and to our journal 'The 

 Naturalist,' to note what energy especially the 'Boulder 

 Committee ' and the ' Mycological Committee ' have thrown into 

 their work ; and it is not too much to hope that our ' Wild 

 Birds and Eggs Protection Acts Committee ' has, through its 

 influence with County Councils, etc., done a good deal towards 

 the preservation of many of our charming feathered residents 

 and visitors. With this record of work done, I feel I am 

 thoroughly justified in appealing^ to you assembled here to- 

 nig'ht for more members and more subscriptions, with which to 

 still further carry on this scientific investigation. Like every 

 society doing real work, we want adequate funds, and Mr. 

 Roebuck, as editor of our Transactions, will tell you that he 

 has even now an abundance of valuable contributions to our 

 fauna and flora in manuscript, which is only waiting" for the 

 means with which to pay the printer to ensure its publication 

 and dispersion among" the members. Many of you may have 

 no special inclination or aptitude for hard scientific investiga- 



