30 
and what a great need of workers there was. To promote this, however, 
the first want was a general spread of scientific education— hence the value 
of popularising science. In section E, Mr. Francis Galton spoke of the 
geography of the future, when mere exploration was ended, and then 
developed a scheme for the gi ^ ter sale of reduced copies of the ordnance 
maps In section P., Pro; ^awcett, M.P. reviewed the -resent 
economic condition, and the probable effect of present economic influences, 
offering several practical suggestions, and expressing a fear that the 
tendency of legislation was tojiamper industries, by interfering too much 
with them. In section Gr, Mr. F. J. Bramwell took coal as his subject. 
He dilated upon its use and abuse — how other sources of power might be 
used, as the wind, streams, tide mills, &c, making there a special reference 
to the tide at Bristol. He pointed out many ways of saving coal, both in 
domestic and manufacturing use, and in strong terms condemned the so 
called practical man, as the great obstacle to all improvements. 
In conclusion, Mr. Carpenter referred to some of the principal reports, 
papers, and discussions, that came before the various sections, gave a short 
account of the excursions, and concluded by hoping that the Bristol 
Naturalists' Society would do all in its power to render a meeting of the 
British Association in Bristol, one of the most successful ever held. 
II. 
Notes on Fossil Botany, 
By C. B. Dunn. 
Head at the General Meeting, December 5th, 1872. 
That most pleasant and interesting science, Botany, may be studied 
under various divisions, but the most difficult one is undoubtedly Fossil 
Botany, for this simple reason, that the whole plant may be examined in 
the study of our Flora r of the present day; whereas Fossil specimens are 
seldom found except piece-meal. In the Coal measures where they most 
abound, so great has been the pressure of the superincumbent mass of 
earth, that the vegetable matter has been converted into amorphous pulp 
before mineralisation took place ; and when they have retained their form 
they are so fragmentary that it : s difficult to dete^ine the various portions 
that belong to the same plant. The root, the stem, the branch, the leaf and 
tit o fruit are usually found detached, and so each of these parts have been 
referred to different genera. 
