Anniversary Address. 387 



of the Alpine Cerastium (C. alpinum), and the bright blue 

 rock-loving Veronica ( V. saxatilis) ; the stemless Silene (S. 

 acaulis), giving a pink and velvety covering to the decom- 

 posing granite ; the bright yellow Alpine Hieracium (H. alpi- 

 num), and other glorious flowers, which look as if their hues 

 had been wrung from evening skies ; the tiny mosses with 

 their club-like thecse, and the crustaceous dry lichens with 

 their spore-bearing apothecia : — all these add a charm to 

 Botanical excursions, imprinting them indelibly on the 

 memory, and associating them with intercourse of the most 

 pleasing nature. What applies to the Botanist may be said 

 of every zealous Naturalist who wanders over hill and dale 

 in the practical prosecution of his science. 



In a Review of Sir Joseph Hooker's " British Flora," 

 Dr Trimen makes the following remarks: — "There is an 

 increasing class of Cryptogamic specialists, especially of 

 Mycologists ; there is great facility of foreign travel 

 which leads to much attention being paid to exotic 

 plants, which was formerly devoted to our own flora ; 

 above all, there is a new school of Botanists rising, to 

 whom the systematic study of British plants is quite uncon- 

 genial. In place of the old-fashioned botanising in the field, 

 and the study of ordinal, generic and specific characters and 

 differences, which have hitherto been the grammar of 

 Botany to British students, and formed the foundation of 

 the knowledge of very nearly all the leading Botanists in 

 this country, the young student now substitutes a course of 

 reading about investigations in development, histology or 

 growth, which have been mainly carried out in the labora- 

 tories of other countries, and indulges in speculations on 

 evolution and the acquirement of distinctive characteis. It 

 is unnecessary to express here my opinion as to the general 

 results of the change. It is probable that in the future it 

 will become still more marked, and the class of ' good British 

 Botanists' of whom Watson, Borrer, Bos well, and Babington 

 may be cited as examples, are scarcely likely to be ever 

 again so strongly and prominently represented as it has 



