X PEOOIBDINGS or THE 



came to, last November, finally to abandon all idea of forming a 

 general Museum, which we could have no hopes of ever having the 

 means of rendering practically useful. Eetaining such collections 

 of historical value as are complete in themselves, require little ex- 

 penditure of time and money for their preservation, and are readily 

 consultable like the books of a library, we have disposed of the 

 remainder as you directed ; and although the sum received for 

 them is, as was expected, of no great amount, yet it has enabled 

 us to acquire several works of importance, and we are now free to 

 devote our energies to the rendering our Library as useful as pos- 

 sible to our Fellows, and to maintain and increase the extent and 

 importance of our publications, Tou have heard, from our Trea- 

 surer's accounts, that we have, in the course of the past year, ex- 

 pended on books and binding about £120, having purchased, 

 amongst other works of value, Martins' s great ' Flora Brasiliensis,' 

 Blume's 'Eumphia,' Owen's 'Odontography,' Pander and d' Alton's 

 ' Comparative Osteology,' Eschricht's ' Wallthiere,' &c., and a large 

 number of smaller useful works of reference. The ' Transactions ' 

 preparing for the autumn issue are of unusual extent, and the 

 Council are making arrangements for printing the Catalogue of 

 our Library, which they hope to be able to effect with the aid of 

 a moderate charge to Fellows desirous of obtaining it. "With all 

 this, we have not lost sight of the necessity of regularly investing 

 a portion of the sums received as life-compositions : £300 Consols 

 have been purchased since our last Anniversary, making a total of 

 £1300 now standing in the name of the Society. 



In attempting, last year, a general review of the principal biolo- 

 gical questions to which the attention of naturalists and of our 

 own Society especially had been recently directed, there were a 

 few points which, for want of space, I vyas obliged to leave un- 

 touched, and upon which 1 would now say a few words. 



The phenomena of Htbeidism are, to the botanist especially, 

 a subject for study of considerable importance, not only for the 

 practical results obtained under domesticity or cultivation, but 

 from their influence on the questions of species and variety, and 

 on systematic arrangement and description. The existence of 

 hybrid plants in a wild state had long been denied by many, and 

 is now scarcely recognized amongst extra-European plants, whilst 

 others, amongst recent botanists, consider them as not only fre- 

 quent but abundant in certain genera in northern and temperate 

 Europe. The difficulties in establishing facts of which the evi- 

 dences are all circumstantial have been summarily disposed of, 



