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some twenty-nine years ago. Yet if the impediments could 

 have been foreseen that have prevented me from attending any 

 of the Field Meetings of the year, excepting one, I could never 

 have yielded at all to the desire of those kind friends who nomi- 

 nated me at the last annual assemblage. For the presence of 

 the President at the excursions ought certainly to be obtained, 

 whenever it is possible, for reasons manifest to us all, and to 

 none more so than to me. 



Before proceeding further, however, I will now read the notes 

 of our able and zealous Honorary Secretary, Mr. T. Thompson, 

 in order that the occupations of the day on each of the several 

 appointments for the field, may, through his conscientious fidelity 

 to our intentions, be clearly brought under view. 



If I could have been present at the first excursion, and the 

 weather had permitted a party to assemble, it was a favourable 

 occasion, of which I wished to avail myself, for pointing atten- 

 tion to the abundance of the common butter-cup and other ranun- 

 culi in the pasture and old meadow-lands of our country. "Whilst 

 the golden sheen of their inflorescence is a topic of popular and 

 general admiration in the month of May in every southern and 

 midland county, and also in Yorkshire, I have at times been 

 amazed to hear some northern farmers speak of them as weeds, 

 occupying the space that ought to be filled by grasses or clovers. 

 On asking why this idea had been adopted, it was "Because you 

 may always see that the beasts eat between the butter-cups and 

 leave them." It was forgotten that animals also avoid a large 

 part of the seed-heads of all the grasses themselves : of the 

 clovers also. Thus it is that by a beneficial distaste they forbear 

 to consume too much of the reproductive organisation which 

 perpetuates their pasturage. 



And as regards the leafage of the ranunculi, it is extremely 

 copious, and is freely consumed by kine and sheep, intermingled 

 with the succulent grasses, plantains, sorrels, and clovers, to all 

 of which its warm and pungent quality serves as an invaluable 

 corrective no less than as a relish. 



Whenever I see an old grass field golden with butter-cups, 



