221 YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS UNION — ANNUAL REPORT. 5 



admitted — the Scarborough Naturalists' Society with thirty-seven 

 members, and the Ravensthorpe Naturalists' Society with 124. 



The statistics which the Secretaries of the various Societies 

 have again been kind enough to furnish, show a slight increase in 

 the number of Associates, the aggregate membership of the thirty- 

 nine Societies now amounting to 2,580, an increase of sixty-three. 

 Adding to this the number of direct members, the total numerical 

 strength of the Union is 3,010. 



The Membership now stands at 430, an increase of twenty 

 on the previous year. During the year, 43 new members have been 

 elected. 



The Union has been unfortunate in losing by death several good 

 supporters in Messrs. Jas. Backhouse, F.L.S., Wm. Aldam, D.L., J.P.^ 

 Edward Hailstone, F.S.A., John Grassham, Walter W. Booths 

 Francis H. Potter, and E. B. Wrigglesworth, the latter of whom was 

 at one time a Secretary of the Entomological Section. The most 

 serious loss has been that of a member of the Executive Committee 

 in Mr. S. A. Adamson, F.G.S., who had for several years been the 

 life and soul of the Geological Section and a most energetic member 

 of the committees concerned with geological research. 



The Financial Position of the Union has been a subject of 

 some anxiety to the Executive during the year, as the very heavy loss 

 which the Union sustained in the matter of the publication of the 

 West Yorkshire Flora and difificulty in recovering some of the 

 arrears of subscriptions, have much embarrassed the Treasurer in 

 paying off the Union's liabilities. The number of copies of the 

 Flora which are left in stock is quite sufficient to clear off the liability 

 incurred for its publication, and members could do the Union good 

 service by providing themselves with the work ; but so long as the 

 unsold copies remain in hand, the Union's work in publishing 

 Transactions will be somewhat restricted. 



Much credit is due to the various members who act as local 

 Treasurers for the service which they render to the Union, many 

 of them keeping the subscriptions in their district regularly and 

 systematically collected, and thereby avoiding the accumulation of 

 the arrears which in certain instances form so serious an incon- 

 venience. 



It is satisfactory to note the increasing number of members who> 

 avail themselves of the convenient method of instructing their 

 bankers to pay the subscription on its falling due. 



The Publications of the Union have been as in former years. 



The Transactions. — Part 14 was issued in September of this 

 year, and was devoted to a Report by Mr. Robert Kidston, F.R.S.E 



July 1891. 



