PBESIDENTIAL ADDEESS 



ON 



BOTANIC GAEDENS— PAST AND PEESENT. 



BY 



E. J. Haevey Gibson, M.A., F.L.S., 



PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEC4E, LIVERPOOL. 



My first duty is to thank you formally but none the less 

 sincerely, for the honour you have done me in electing me 

 to fill the presidential chair of the Liverpool Biological 

 Society. I thank you not only for the honour you have 

 done me as an individual but for your implied recognition 

 of the importance of the science which I represent in 

 this College. I need hardly say that it shall be my 

 constant endeavour to fulfil to your satisfaction the duties 

 devolving on your President, and I confidently look for 

 your interest and cooperation in aiding me to maintain the 

 high standard of work which this Society has always 

 aimed at under the guidance of the distinguished biologists 

 who have preceded me in the occupancy of this chair. 



Our meetings, I take it, have two important functions 

 to fulfil, the one to awaken in others and to stimulate in 

 ourselves interest in the science of Biology, the other 

 to advance that science by original investigation and 

 research. Whilst frankly acknowledging the necessity 

 for endeavouring to render our meetings as generally 

 attractive and interesting as possible, I believe that we 

 would be taking a distinctly retrogressive step were we 

 to permit any such aim to obscure the wider and more 

 important purpose of our Society, viz., to attempt, 

 however feebly, still conscientiously, to elucidate some 



