206 Anniversary Address. 



the British Association, i-emarks on the serious peril that 

 exists in " the dying out amongst us of two branches 

 of Botanical study, in which we have hitherto occupied 

 a position of no small distinction." " Apart from the 

 staffs of our official institutions," he says, "there seems 

 to be no one who either takes any interest in, or 

 appreciates in the smallest degree, the importance of 

 systematic and descriptive Botany ; and Geographical 

 distribution is almost in a worse plight." 



There is, moreover, an inexhaustible field open to us 

 in physiological and morphological Botany. Some few 

 years ago, Professor I. Bayley Balfour impressed on the 

 delegates of corresponding societies, at the British 

 Association, the importance of encouraging their members 

 to study the life-history of indigenous plants in their 

 entirety, i.e. from the stage of embryo in the seed, up 

 to the production of fruit and seed again. He said, 

 " Anyone, who will take up this line of study, will 

 assuredly derive great pleasure from it, and will be able 

 to add a great deal to the sum of our knowledge of 

 plant life. Such work can l)e well combined with the 

 more usual systematic work ; it can be easily accom- 

 plished, and it will be found to give much additional 

 interest in the study of British Botany." 



Observations and experiments might also be made in 

 plant Biology — by those of us interested in horticulture 

 — which, as a study, has been raised, in latter years, to 

 a much higher position scientifically, than it formerly 

 occupied. 



In proof of this, I may instance the contents of the 

 Transactions of the Royal Horticultural Society, and the 

 fact that the Sitientific Committee of that Institution 

 comprises several of the greatest scientists of the day; 

 and also the more intimate association with horticulture 

 of the study of plant life, as exemplified by some of 

 the recent works on the Natural History of Plants — 

 notably that by Professor Kerner. 



Every plant can teach us something. One of the 



