Marcli 21, 1891. 



OUR COLUMNS. 



15 



arcftaeological anD Jl3atural fpistorg Section. 



^^I'-r'T a meeting of tlie Committee held on Thursday evening, February 26, for the 

 ^Uj^ selection of officers, and to arrange a jDrogramme for papers and excursions, 

 iMii^i the folloAving ajDpointments were made : — 



Chairman of the Section . . . . . . Eev. Canon Haddock. 



Secretary and Curator . . . . . , Mr. Elger. 



Editorial Secretary . . . . . . . . Mr. Blaydes. 



Botanical Secretary . . . . . . . . Mr, Hamsox. 



Assistant Secretarj' and Curator . . . . Mr. Davis. 



It was decided that excursions take place on the second "Wednesday in the months of 

 May, June, and July, — the details to be settled at the next meeting on March 26th. 

 Mr. Seebohm will give a lecture on '* Siberia " at the Library on March 19. The chair 

 will be taken at 8 p.m. 



The valuable books formerly belonging to the Archa?ological Society have, since the 

 amalgamation of this institution with the General Library, been placed in a new book- case 

 on the south side of the Library and may be consulted by all the members. They are 

 classed, however, as reference books and cannot be taken from the room except by 

 special permission. The coins, Greek, Roman, and English, and a fine series of Paj^al 

 Medals, Bedfordshire Tradesmen's tokens, kc, kc, will, as far as space will allow, be 

 exhibited in a suitable case in the Library, and may be examined on apjDlication to the 

 Curator, or his deputy, Mr. Davis. The Herbarium of Bedfordshire plants is under 

 the care of Mr. Hamson, and may be consulted on application to the Assistant Cm-ator. 



Bedfoedshiee Floka. — Among the possessions that the Natm-al History Society 

 brings to the General Library is a large collection of Bedfordshii*e plants — an almost 

 complete herbarium of the county flora — and when all the specimens in my care are 

 mounted, I believe it will be quite complete " up to date." There is also the MS. of a 

 work on the county flora. It represents most of my leisure time during three or four 

 years, and as a work of reference it ought not to be lost sight of by local botanists. This 

 work is not quite up to date, because there have been a few good plant records established 

 during the last two or three seasons that are not entered ; but it might form the basis 

 or framework of a modern Flora Bedfordiensis. Since the task was first taken in hand, 

 botanists, who are a very progressive peo])le, have taken to swearing by a book called 

 Watson's Topography of the British Flora, instead of by the London Catalogue of British 

 Plants, and as my poor production is based upon the latter work, it will need entirely 

 recasting before it will successfully withstand the shafts of criticism. I have already 

 twice gone through the painful and tedious process of recasting the MS. in order to meet 

 modern requirements, and do not feel disposed to undertake it again without the aid and 

 advice of a competent committee of botanists. The Phanerogams, Ferns, Equisetums, and 

 especially the ]Mosses and Charas, of the county are pretty thoroughly searched out by 

 various botanists. There is also a respectable list of Fungi, and a good deal is known 

 about the Algae and Hepaticae, but the two last-named groups have not been reduced to a 

 form available for reference. Some years ago the late Dulve of Bedford gave a sum of 

 money to further the botanical survey of the county and a publication of a work on the 

 flora. The balance of this fund is in the Savings Bank. — J. Hajisox, Botanical Secretary. 



