202 president's address. 



make it the only systematic and continuous description of species 

 of Dicotyledonese. 



How is this fundamental fact to be remedied ? 



Others who know the country better than I do will be able 

 to answer the question satisfactorily. — J. Batalha-Beis. 



May 8th, 1888. 



The Last Meeting was held on Friday, October 7th. About 

 twenty members left the Central Station and were joined by 

 several others at Eoker. The " improvements," as they are 

 called, were examined, and some time was spent at the mouth 

 of Eoker Dene, but Spottee's Hole was barricaded, and the road 

 through the Dene had been " improved" so much that scarcely 

 a common wild flower was left to testify to its former wildness. 

 One of the party gave a short account of the low Magnesian- 

 limestone cliff, which he saw when young, extending from the 

 mouth of Eoker Dene to the North Docks, all now covered up 

 deep in ballast, deposited from the ships that formerly loaded 

 coals in the North Docks. Then this part of the coast was 

 unfrequented, except by Whitburn fisher folk. The Bee-orchis 

 and other rare plants grew in the Dene, and all was wild and 

 waste and unimproved, and Spottee reigned the undisputed lord 

 of the manor. At the entrance of the Dene several hammers 

 and chisels were speedily unpocketed, shewing, in a manner not 

 to be mistaken, that some work was intended. Several unfruit- 

 ful searches for fossils were made in new localities, but it was 

 not until a well known spot had been reached that the search 

 became successful. Axinus dubius, Myalina Hausmanni, Pleu- 

 rophorus costatus, small bivalves, which are almost the only 

 fossils found in the upper limestone beds, were secured, but not 

 in abundance. Further on the same species were found enclosed 

 in the lower part of one of the large conglobated spheres. This 

 was an unusual discovery and new to the locality. 



From fossils our attention was turned to the very peculiar 

 lithological structure of the beds of limestone forming the cliff 

 on this part of the coast. These beds are so peculiar and unusual 

 that, in no other part of England or on the continent, or any 



