PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS TO THE SCOTTISH CRYPTOGAMIC 



SOCIETY. 



By His Grace The Duke of Argyll. 



[This Address was spoken from notes to the Meeting of the Society at 

 Inveraray in September, to which the public were admitted. We print it 

 from the reports in newspapers. — Ed. Scot. Nat.] 



WE are met for the purpose of receiving and welcoming and 

 deriving instruction from the members of the Crypto- 

 gamic Society. We are delighted to receive those gentlemen, and 

 to be instructed by them on the beautiful natural forms which are 

 so abundant in this neighbourhood. The Secretary of the Society 

 has asked me to give an address on this occasion ; but I repre- 

 sented to my friend that I am entirely ignorant of Scientific 

 Botany, and especially of this particular branch of Cryptogamic 

 Botany. However, he seemed to hold that this was no objection 

 whatever, and that address you I must. This condition of mind 

 almost reminds me of the story of a great sovereign in sacred 

 history whose heart was said to have been hardened, and who 

 insisted upon the captive Israelites making bricks without straw • 

 so I am expected to address my audience on Cryptogamic Botany, 

 knowing nothing whatever of the subject. 



However, there are some things we may all know in a general 

 way, and one thing is this, that a great deal of the natural beauty 

 of this country depends upon what are called cryptogamic plants. 

 I have always maintained that the beauty of the West Coast and 

 the Highlands is greater in winter than in summer. In summer 

 the mass of foliage, especially at Inveraray, absorbs so much of 

 the light that the scenery is less conspicuous and less remarkable. 

 In autumn the colours are very brilliant ; but in winter, especially 

 when there is frosty sunshine on the hills, theie are such wonder- 

 ful reflections of light on the water that we are accustomed to admire 

 the scenery then more than in summer. Then, there is another 



