1899] ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 21 



EVENING MEETING. 



A public meeting was held in the hall of the Y. M. C. A. building at 8 o'clock. 

 There were about seventy-five persons present, including the Right Rev. Dr. Baldwin, 

 Bishop of Huron, and many ladies. The proceedings were opened by the Rev. Dr. Beth- 

 une, who cordially welcomed those present, and introduced the President, Mr. Henry H, 

 Lyman, of Montreal, who delivered his annual address as follows : 



THE PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



By Henry H. Lyman, M.A., Montreal. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : — It is again my duty as well as privilege to address you at 

 this the thirty-sixth annual meeting of our Society, and to congratulate you upon the 

 continued success of its work and the high standing maintained by its monthly journal* 

 At our last annual meeting it was a matter of regret that so few members from head- 

 quarters were able to attend, but it was a great treat to the members of our Montreal 

 Branch to have the meeting held in that city, in connection with the celebration of the 

 twenty-fith anniversary of the formation of the branch, as it was the first opportunity 

 that our members had had of attending an annual meeting of the parent society since 

 1882, the only other occasion when the annual meeting was held in Montreal. 



In beginning my address last year I dwelt upon the difficulty experienced by an 

 amateur entomologist in composing an annual address, but if I was in difficulties last 

 year, I am in much greater straits now, as not thinking of a second term in the presidential 

 chair, and following the scriptural injunction to "let the morrow take thought for the 

 things of itself," I not only, put into that address almost everything I could at the time 

 think of, but also all the items of interest that I could beg or borrow of my friends, and 

 now find myself somewhat in* the position of a clock which having struck twelve has to 

 come down to striking one. 



Last year I had, shall I say, the temerity to lay before the meeting a great 

 many suggestions, the adoption of which would, I ventured to think, be of material 

 benefit to those engaged in the prosecution of studies in this science, but I am not aware 

 that the slightest movement has been made towards the adoption of any one of them. 



I hope that it was not a case of a fool rushing in where angels, if there are any 

 entomological angels, fear to tread, and shall, in order to save my amour propre, at least 

 try to believe that it is only another instance, of which there have been so many in the 

 history of the world, of a reformer being in advance of his time. But while the non- 

 success of my suggestions last year should, perhapp, be a warning to me to leave the 

 making of suggestions to more influential persons, I cannot refrain from re-iterating the 

 opinion that a well-organized Entomologists' Union, on similar lines to those on which the 

 Ornithologists' Union is carried on, could be made of very great benefit to the science of 

 entomology. 



Last year I ventured to point out a number of matters which such a union could 

 deal with to advantage but many more could easily be suggested. I recently had an 

 example of the necessity for such an organization for the settlement of matters of 

 nomenclature. A gentleman friend, not a naturalist, but only one who takes a sympa- 

 thetic interest in such studies, invited me into his office and proceeded to describe 

 enthusiastically the beautiful chrysalis of our milkweed butterfly which he had been 

 shown by a gardener who had found it, and when I said I knew it well, he rashly asked 

 me its name. Immediately I was in a quandary, should I give him only one name, choos- 

 ing maybe that which I might myself prefer, or should I risk his mental equipoise by 

 plunging him without preliminary training into the vortex of the battle of the synonyms 1 

 After a moment's hesitation I decided upon a compromise giving him his choice of three 

 names, writing down, lest even these should be too great a strain upon his memory, that 



