PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



BY MR. W. A. LUFF, RETIRING PRESIDENT. 



In returning into your hands the important office with 

 which you have entrusted me, I must express to you my 

 sincere gratitude for the kindness with which you have 

 invariably received me, and I shall always remember with 

 pleasure the period during which I have had the honour of 

 presiding over you. 



I must congratulate the Society on the completion of 

 the third volume of the Transactions. A glance at the 

 indexes will show what a store of information is contained 

 in these three volumes. 



Besides numerous articles on the Geology, Meteorology, 

 Antiquities and Folk-lore, we have well authenticated lists of 

 no less than 2,360 species of Plants, and 1,770 species of 

 Insects for the island of Guernsey alone. 



During my period of office the most important work 

 brought forward in the Transactions, were the lists of the 

 Fauna and Flora of Alderney. These lists are mainly due 

 to the exertions of Mr. E. D. Marquand, our late President. 

 They show how much may be done in a limited area by 

 persistent and skilled research. The list of the flowering 

 plants will be still further extended in Mr. Marquand's 

 work on the " Flora of Guernsey and the lesser Channel 

 Islands," which will be issued from the press in a short time. 

 I hope that as many members as possible will show their 

 appreciation of Mr. Marquand's labours by adding this 

 volume to their libraries. 



As some of the sections have been so persistently 

 worked at, that the annual results are, although valuable, 

 small in extent, it behoves us to fly to fresh fields and 

 pastures new. 



One of the subjects which we, as a Society, seem to 

 have ignored, is Marine Zoology. 



On the shores of these islands we have one of the 

 richest fields for the studv of this branch of Natural Science 



