12 
YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS' UNION. 
able ; and that in most departments of geology, botany, and 
zoology, Yorkshiremen have taken a leading part. 
More especially in the study of geographical distribution 
and the influence of environment upon life and variation have 
our naturalists been pre-eminently successful. 
It was to a Yorkshireman, Hewett Cottrell Watson, that 
we owe the beginning of the study of topographical distribution 
of British Plants; to Mr. Gilbert Baker and Mr. F. Arnold Lees 
the carrying on of similar research ; and in our own time we owe 
to one of our members, Dr. Smith, an entirely new departure in 
the mapping of vegetation. 
Of cryptogamic botanists we can point to men like Mudd for 
the lichens. Spruce and Slater for the hepatics, Bolton, Soppitt, 
Massee, and Crossland for the fungi, Hobkirk and Braithwaite 
for the mosses, as the authors of works of high importance, 
particularly Dr. Braithwaite's just completed " Monograph," 
and Mr. Massee's valuable handbooks of British and of 
European fungi. 
In conchology, the Yorkshire group have for the past thirty 
years led the kingdom. In Leeds, the " Journal of Conchology " 
was established, and the Conchological Society of Great Britain 
and Ii eland was founded, and it is in Leeds that the most import- 
ant monograph of the British Land and Freshwater MoUusca is 
now being brought out by the public spirit and indefatigable 
activity of Mr. John W. Taylor. 
In ornithology, the names of Dresser, Seebohm, Clarke, 
Cordeaux suffice to demonstrate that some of the principal 
monographs owe to our county their origin. 
In entomology, too, we have always had numerous, able 
and indefatigable workers, and in Westwood, Spence, Porritt, 
Dunning, Denny, and others, the authors of works which rank 
as classics. 
In geology, I have already mentioned some of the giants of 
the old time, and of late years we have not lacked men of their 
own calibre. Green, Hudleston, Sorby, Dawkins, Tiddeman, 
Kendall, are all names worthy of a place in our remembrance. 
It is only in the study of marine life, a strange phenomenon 
in a county with such a varied coast line, that we have never 
had any systematic investigators. 
There are many and various minor topics which, in a full 
and detailed history of our Society would be worthy of mention, 
but would be quite out of place with the limited amount of time 
available for a spoken address. 
A few words as to our scope, and to our scientific attitude 
as a body, may not be out of place. 
Our objects are two-fold, social and scientific, and I will 
take them in the inverse order of their importance. 
Our secondary object is to encourage and facilitate friendly 
intercourse and mutual co-operation amongst persons interested 
in the advancement of the natural sciences. 
