ANNUAL ADDRESS TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SOUTH 

 AFRICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 



On the 28th August, 1889, 



By the President, W. H. Finlay, M.A., F.R.A.S. 



It has usually been the custom in our Society for the President at 

 the end of his second year of office to review the work accomplished 

 during the two years of his presidency. As however my twa 

 immediate predecessors in this chair found it irreconcilable with 

 their other duties to accept the honour of re-election at the end of 

 their first year, it falls to my lot to review our work for four years 

 in order to maintain continuity. 



We have had a large number of interesting exhibits at our meetings 

 which have elicited much useful information from members. In the 

 first rank of the exhibitors must be placed the Rev. G. H. R. Fisk, 

 whose energy in this direction I would like to see imitated by many 

 more of our members. Among Mr. Fisk's exhibits I must specially 

 refer to a complete series of the homopus tortoises, viz., homopus 

 areolatus^ horn, signatus, and horn, femoralis^ the only complete set 

 which has I believe been shewn alive, and of which horn, signntu& 

 was new to the collection of the Zoological Society of London. 

 Also to a second specimen of testudo Fiski, the only other one 

 known having been discovered by Mr. Fisk towards the end of 1885. 

 The discovery of this specimen and of testudo Trimeni led Mr, 

 Boulanger to a complete revision of the South African tortoises allied 

 to Testudo geometrica^ with the result that seven well-marked 

 species could be distinguished. Mr. Fisk had also the pleasure of 

 discovering a new snake which was described by Mr. Boulanger in the 

 Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London May 3, 1887, and was 

 named Lamprophis Fiski. 



Mr. Trimen shewed us a perfect specimen of the 'rare Lycoenide 

 butteifly, Aphnoeus Hutchinsonii. This species was previously 

 founded on a single worn example of the male captured in 1886. 



