PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 211 
cannot hope to find any thing new. I may be wrong in my 
supposition, but should this be the case, it will have a bad 
effecb upon us younger naturalists ; there are many amongst us 
who require to be instructed and encouraged in these delightful 
studies to make themselves acquainted with the best geological 
districts, and with the habitats of our wild plants, which they 
can only do thoroughly with the assistance of more experi- 
enced members. 
There is another subject which, as a Botanist, occurs to my 
mind at each of our Field Meetings ; when gathering any rare 
plant on its native soil, I regret that our Society cannot be made 
more useful than it now is to those who cannot, as we do, see 
the plant growing in its own locality ; the specimen goes to my 
herbarium, part of it tomy garden at Stamfordham, and becomes, 
as 1t were, lost to the world. Now, I believe, there are many 
people extremely fond of Botany, who, owing to unavoidable cir- 
cumstances, cannot find time to gratify their taste or to improve 
their knowledge. Now, could no piece of ground be found near 
this large and healthy town, where we might bring any contri- 
butions collected in our rambles, and thus give people an oppor- 
tunity of seeing their native plants growing? This would tend 
greatly, I am sure, towards promoting the science amongst us, 
and might, in time, form the nucleus of a Botanical Garden in 
or near Newcastle. I was in Belgium last spring, where I ob- 
served that nearly every town of any pretensions has a Botanical 
Garden, but then the foreigners go to work on a totally different 
plan from us in this country, they begin at the bottom of the 
ladder and go gradually up increasing their works in proportion 
to their funds. Now, it strikes me, that our fault in England 
is to undertake too much at once; instead of beginning in a 
small way, our ambition leads us to aim at once at perfection ; 
hothouses, conservatories, dvc., are built, which cannot be kept up 
without a great annual outlay, as has been found, I understand, 
to be the case at Liverpool. 
I do not think that our proceedings last year have been 
marked by anything of importance, but we have passed some 
very pleasant days in rambling about the country ; besides the 
