IO £ [Proc. B.N.F.G., 



the chief stress must be laid on his marvellous powers of class- 

 ification and description. His great merit consisted not so much 

 in the importance of his discoveries as in the wonderful skill with 

 which he gathered up and fused together all that was serviceable in 

 the labours of his predecessors. With his genius for classification 

 there was combined a power of terse and accurate description, 

 such as has rarely been equalled by any writer. With him 

 descriptive botany assumed an entirely new form. He had the 

 faculty of framing precise and striking descriptions of species and 

 genera in the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms by means of a few 

 marks contained in the smallest possible number of words. 

 Linne openly admitted that the sexual system associated with his 

 name was artificial. A perfect system of this kind should group 

 plants allied in habit, mode of growth, properties and uses. What 

 Linne effected was only a part, but a great part, of the natural 

 arrangement of plants. In conclusion the President dealt with 

 Linne's religious instinct and with his botanical excursions with 

 his scholars from Upsala University. 



The paper, which was followed throughout with marked 

 attention, was spoken to by Rev. C. H. Waddell and Mr. William 

 Gray. Three new members, Miss C. Ryan, Miss Nellie Noble 

 and Mr. Henry Kench, having been elected, those present spent 

 a profitable hour in further examining the exhibits. 



" PLANTS IN RELATION TO THEIR SURROUNDINGS." 



The second meeting of the Winter session was held in the 

 Museum on Tuesday, 16th December. The chair was occupied 

 by the Vice-President (Mr. R. Lloyd Praeger, M.R.I.A.), who 

 introduced the lecturer, Mr. G. Livens, B.Sc, Botanical Demon- 

 strator at Queen's University. 



The lecturer, in the course of his paper, said, in order to 

 understand the broad relations which exist between plants and 

 their surroundings it is essential to consider a wide representation 

 of the vegetable world. Thus, if one traces the life-cycles of 



