ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 65 



familiar names, or even the introduction of new ones. At pre- 

 sent, even within the limits of our country and its dependencies, 

 stratigraphical and chronological terms do not bear invariably pre- 

 cisely the same meaning in the writings of different authors, and 

 similar differences may be noticed in the colouring and graphic 

 marking of maps. 



This indubitably tends to create confusions and misapprehensions, 

 real hindrances to the acquisition and spread of geological knowledge, 

 which all must desire to see removed. The projected execution 

 at Berlin of a geological map of Europe, under the direction of 

 a Committee of the Congress, will afford to all an opportunity of see- 

 ing the proposed method of colouring and the graphic signs. 



The decisions of the ongress with respect to palaeontological 

 nomenclature have a peculiar force at the present time, when the 

 multiplication of genera and species by the discovery of distinctly 

 new forms, or the renaming of old ones (a not unfrequent event of 

 late), proceeds at a prodigious rate. The truth of the following 

 extract from a letter addressed by M. Alph. de Candolle to M. 

 Capellini, the President of the Congress, will be apparent to every 

 one ; he writes : — " S'il y a quelque chose de vague et de contestable 

 dans les sciences naturelles, c'est la distinction des especes en 

 paleontologie. On ne voit jamais tous les caracteres qu'il fau- 

 drait connaitre pour les distinguer ;" and he illustrates this by 

 reference to the varying forms of the leaves of plants, remarking 

 that one single stem of Eucalyptus would by its leaves supply five 

 or six such species as are admitted into palaeontology, and one of 

 Broussonnetia would yield from ten to fifteen. 



It will be within the recollection of some present that in the 

 early part of last session Mr. J. S. Gardner, in the discussion which 

 followed the reading of his paper " On the Geology of Madeira," drew 

 attention to the confusion arising from this cause, and instanced the 

 many variations of the leaf-form in Ruhus. 



I may not hold palaeontologists wholly blameless in respect of the 

 reproach conveyed in M. de Candolle's letter. One taxonomy 

 should apply to the dead and the living, since each of these are but 

 the earlier and the later links in our ever onward-moving series of 

 beings. Any such distinction as is implied in the popular idea of 

 a palaeontologist as a person wholly concerned with extinct and a 

 zoologist as wholly busied with living forms is to be deprecated. The 

 past and the present are complementary, they are mutually illus- 

 trative. It is not possible to understand extinct forms without an 

 acquaintance with those now living ; and living forms are simply 

 unintelligible, so far as relates to a right comprehension of them, 

 without an acquaintance with the extinct. 



In conclusion, one very important event which took place during 

 the meeting of the Congress must be mentioned ; it is the founding 

 of the " Geological Society of Italy." Let us wish it God-speed, and 

 cherish the hope that the circumstances of its birth may prove a 

 happy augury of its future prosperity. 



