RICl'OKT OK THE PROFESSOR OF BOTANY. 
37 
X. Report of the Professor of Botany. 
[Presented February 11, 1873.] 
During the past year I have endeavoured, as far as possible, 
to carry out regularly the duties assigned to the Professor of Botany 
in the last Eeport of the Council. 
In the months of April, May, and June I delivered a course of 
six lectures on Plowers and Fruits." The average attendance at 
each lecture was about fifty persons. I may perhaps be permitted to 
remark that it would add considerably to the comfort of the audience 
if, on future occasions, access could be obtained to the ofBices with- 
out the necessity of traversing the Council-room while the lecture is 
proceeding. I have to thank Messrs. Yeitch for the loan of nume- 
rous plants for purposes of illustration, besides those which I 
obtained from the Society's own gardens. 
During the Birmingham Show a Horticultural Congress was held 
on the afternoons of the 26th |^and 27th of June. Introductory 
addresses were delivered by myself and Mr. Moore, and ten papers 
were read. The want of time for adequate discussion was, how- 
ever, felt to be a great drawback to the practical usefulness of the 
meetings. It appears to me very desirable that, if held at all, the 
Congress should continue to be under the auspices of the Society, 
but I am inclined to think that it would be better to confine it to a 
single evening meeting, at which one or two subjects only should be 
taken up. 
The Journal of the Society will for the future be published 
quarterly, under the joint editorship of the Eev. M. J. Berkeley 
and myself. Each number will contain, in addition to other matter 
connected with the scientific work of the society, a brief resume 
of the Chiswick meteorological observations, with respect to which 
further information will be found in the Report of the Board of 
Direction. In exchange for the Chiswick meteorological observa- 
tions the Director of the Meteorological Office has regularly sent 
to the Society the daily charts placed in the Council-room. 
At the commencement of April the Council placed the charge 
of the Lindley Library in my hands. Having to a considerable 
extent re-arranged the books, I was able to suggest to the trustees 
the sale of seventy-six volumes which were either duplicates or un- 
connected with botanical or horticultural subjects. During the past 
year 108 volumes have been added, and seventy-nine volumes 
bound. Accicss to this library I have found of the greatest possible 
