1833.] 



President's Address. 



65 



based chiefly npon the careful use of special reagents, that, in the 

 sensitive cushions of certain plants and in other situations, the 

 vegetable cell-wall is pierced by minute apertures, and that these 

 are traversed by threads of protoplasm, which connect the cell- 

 body of each cell with those of its neighbour, and thus establish, 

 as in animals, a continuity of protoplasmic substance between 

 different parts. Other observers are working at the same subject, 

 and we may hope that, before long, great light will be thrown upon 

 many hitherto puzzling questions in vegetable physiology. 



The Committee of the Royal Society, in the hands of which the 

 Lords of the Treasury have placed the administration of the funds 

 devoted to the publication of the work of the "Challenger" expedi- 

 tion, report that, under the careful and vigorous direction of Mr. 

 Murray, this great undertaking is making rapid progress. 



Mr. Murray informs me that thirty-eight reports have, up to this 

 time, been published, forming eight large quarto volumes, with 4195 

 pages of letter-press, 488 lithographic plates and other illustrations. 

 Thirty-four of these memoirs are on zoological, four on physical 

 subjects. Nine reports are now nearly all in type, and some of them 

 partly printed off. These will be published within three months, and 

 will form three zoological volumes, with 230 plates and many wood-cuts, 

 and one physical volume, with many diagrams and maps ; this latter 

 volume will contain the report on the composition of ocean water, 

 the specific gravity and temperature observations. 



A considerable part of the general narrative of the cruise is now in 

 type, and nearly all the illustrations are prepared. The narrative 

 will extend to two volumes, and it is expected they will be ready for 

 issue in May or June, 1884. 



The work connected with the remaining forty-two special reports is, 

 in most instances, progressing satisfactorily. Portions of the manu- 

 script for three of the larger memoirs have been received and put 

 in type, and the manuscript of many others is in a forward state. 

 For these memoirs, 386 lithographic plates have been printed off and 

 delivered to the binders ; 404 others are now on stone, and the draw- 

 ings for many more are being prepared. It is estimated that the 

 whole work connected with the Report will be completed in the 

 summer of 1887. 



In his Address, last year, the President gave the Society a full 

 account of the changes which had taken place in the administration 

 of the Government Fund — technically termed a grant in aid of this 

 Society — though, as you are aware, the Royal Society, while willingly 

 accepting the burden and the responsibility of administrator of the 

 aid granted by the State to science, is, in no sense, pecuniarily benefited 

 by the grant. 



VOL. xxxvi. F 



