124 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 



Club ; and he added that now that the existence and 

 nature of the insect were known, the managers of the 

 port would be saved from further expenditure due to 

 its ravages.* In 1891 there is notice of a paper by 

 Dr Hardy on a caterpillar, destructive of farm crops. 

 This w^as read at a Farmers' Club, and afterwards 

 reprinted.-}- Again in 1897 Canon Walker, alluding to 

 certain discussions, enquires whether we could not sum- 

 marise our individual observations as to the ways and 

 doings of rooks, starlings, and sparrows ? " There is," 

 he says, " a great deal of general information respecting 

 some of these, scattered up and down in the history of 

 our Club, which we might advantageously bring into a 

 summary for study and comparison." :|: I would suggest 

 that here is a field of operation for a young or leisured 

 member, the result of whose enquiry might be of great 

 utility to agriculture by assisting us to decide questions 

 relating to such larvae and birds. In the Address of 

 Dr Paul on Fungi, it is shown how information on that 

 subject is useful, by disclosing the extent to which the 

 growths may, and do, become the causes of disease in 

 man, in the lower animals, and in the vegetable world. 

 Incidentally he remarks that the edible kind of Fungi 

 are more numerous than is usually supposed, information 

 interesting to all, or at least to the retiring President, 

 who is looking forward to the consumption of Lactarius 

 deliciosus.\\ 



The pursuits in which we are engaged move us not 

 only towards a fuller view of Nature's wonders, and 

 show us how they " their great Original proclaim," they 

 not only reward us by discoveries of use in our ordinary 

 life, but they also induce intellectual exercise, at times 



* Vol. I., p. 163 (1838). For effects of Monkshood on a horse see 

 Vol. I., p. 157 (1837). 



t Vol. XIII., p. 296 (1891). 

 X Vol. XVI., p. 135 (1897). 

 IJ Vol. xii., pp. 1-5 (1887). 



