xliv 
Report to the General Meeting. 
prises the counties of Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton, 
Nottingham, Rutland, and Warwick. The Council having 
received most cordial invitations from the authorities of Bir- 
mingham, Lincoln, Nottingham, and Peterborough, appointed 
a Committee to inspect the sites and other accommodation 
offered by the respective localities ; and after considering the 
Report of this Committee, and conferring v. ith representatives of 
the several towns, finally decided that the Country Meeting 
for 1876 should be held at Birmingham. 
The Council have also to announce that, in accordance with 
the rotation of districts at present followed, the Country Meeting 
for 1877 will be held in the district comprising the counties 
of Cumberland, Lancaster, Westmoreland, and the West Riding 
of Yorkshire. 
The Council have obtained the opinion of T. C. Kingdon, 
Esq., Q.C., as to the proper interpretation of the language of the 
Charter and of the Bye-laws, more especially with reference to 
some apparent inconsistency between them respecting the powers 
of the Members of the Society. The full text of the case sub- 
mitted to Mr. Kingdon and his opinion are added as an appendix 
to this Report ; and the Council have now only to add that, after 
careful consideration of the opinion of Mr. Kingdon, they gave 
power to a Special Committee to re-consider those Bye-laws 
which are inconsistent with the Charter, and generally to revise 
the Bye-laws of the Society. The Bye-laws, as revised by the 
Committee, are at present under the consideration of the 
Society's solicitors, and it is proposed to enact the revised code 
in December in the manner laid down in the existing Bye-laws. 
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs having communi- 
cated to the Council a correspondence between the Swiss Envoy 
at Vienna and Sir Andrew Buchanan, Her ]Majesty's Ambassa- 
dor, relating to the alleged probable importation of the Colorado 
Potato-beetle into this country with American potatoes, this 
question has received the careful attention of the Botanical Com- 
mittee during the past six months. They have ascertained that 
American potatoes are imported into this country (in compara- 
tively small quantities, and for use as seed) during the months 
of November to IVIarch inclusive ; and they have arranged for 
the publication of a paper on the subject in the next number of 
the ' Journal,' which will appear before the commencement of the 
next season of importation. 
