Yol. 68.'] ANIS'IVJGESARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixui 



of iron in variegated strata, a subject which he made his own and 

 dealt with so thoroughly, that since its publication in 1868 but 

 little new work has been done in England on the subject. The 

 paper was founded on his great knowledge of chemistry and of 

 technical processes, and was elaborately illustrated from his own 

 paintings, which the Council permitted him to reproduce at his 

 own expense, a privilege not often accorded to authors in those 

 days. In the course of his studies he formed a large collection 

 of clays, and other ceramic and encaustic substances, illustrating 

 the raw materials and various stages in the products manufactured 

 from them ; the collection has now, I am glad to say, been 

 presented to the Museum of Practical Geology. I should like 

 to draw especial attention to his brief letter on the relation of 

 the Trias to the older rocks of Charnwood Forest published in 

 the ' Geological Magazine ' in 1868, which appears to have been 

 unaccountably overlooked by geologists. Certainly, had I seen it 

 before the completion of my own study of the buried landscape of 

 that district, much of my work there would have been unnecessary : 

 for, in his comprehensive and rapid observation of that phenomenon 

 and the few trenchant words that he wrote on it, he ^ tore the heart ' 

 out of the subject. But, though he accomplished so much geological 

 work, he was at heart a botanist and naturalist of the older tyx^e, 

 and much of the leisure of his very active life was devoted 

 to the introduction of exotic plants, discovered by himself and 

 others, into English gardens, and to the elaboration of his beautiful 

 monograph on the genus Crocus, which he published in 1886^ 

 illustrating it with 67 coloured plates made from his own paintings - 

 For the purpose of this book he cultivated practically every 

 species of this large genus in his beautiful garden at Benthall 

 Hall, and at the same time he watched and grew there, as a test 

 of their suitability for iutroduction into this climate, a large 

 number of other plants. To him we . owe the charming flower 

 Chionodoxa ludllce, which gives an added beauty to our spring- 

 gardens. He also introduced Draba mawii from Spain, and reintro- 

 duced Crocus minimus from Corsica. In 1886, Mr. Maw removed 

 to his residence at Kenley in Surrey, where he lived in retirement 

 until his death on February 7th this year. 



George Parkes Wall was born at JSTewcastle-on-Tyne in 1832^ 

 and died on February 8th, 1912, in his eightieth year. He was 

 one of the earliest students of the Royal School of Mines, where he 



