President's Address. 
3 
but it still exists, and has now entered on its eighty-eighth 
session ; and though its resources are not so large as they once 
Avere, the zeal of its members I trust is not abated. "We have 
among us many active naturalists v^hose labours have advanced 
natural history, and whose original researches have increased 
the fame and reputation of our school. 
Besides the Royal Physical Society, there were other Na- 
tural History Societies in Edinburgh, especially among the stu- 
dents of the University. One of them was the Plinian Society, 
which, during its short existence, tended much to foster the 
spirit of inquiry, and to call forth the efforts of the junior 
naturalists of Edinburgh. It was essentially a students' society, 
and met within the walls of the College. It began its ex- 
istence on 14th January 1823, and continued to meet till about 
the year 1835. It enrolled among its members many young 
naturalists who afterwards acquired eminence, such as Wm. 
Baird, now in the British Museum ; M'Vicar, now minister of 
Moffat ; Jameson Torrie, well-known for his Natural History 
labours in connection with his uncle Professor Jameson; Ains- 
worth, who published Travels in the District of the Euphrates ; 
Cheeke, the editor of a valuable Natural tlistory Journal; 
Malcolmson, celebrated for his geological pursuits in India ; 
Anderson of Inverness, whose guide to the Geology and Na- 
tural History of the Highlands is so justly praised ; Eobert 
Grant, now Professor of Comparative Anatomy in London ; 
John Coldstream, one of the Fellows of our Society, whose 
labours in Zoology are deservedly famous ; Clouston, now 
a clergyman at Sandwick, who has done much to elucidate the 
flora of Orkney ; Woodforde, who published the Flora of 
Edinburgh ; Lombard of Geneva ; John Addington Symonds, 
now a distinguished physician at Bristol ; Hugh Falconer, 
the Indian Botanist and Zoologist; Browne, one of the Commis- 
sioners of Lunacy, and many others. If I were to analyse the 
proceedings of that Society, I could show that many of those 
gentlemen exhibited in their communications the early dawn- 
ings of their devotion to those departments of science in which 
they afterwards attained distinction. I feel that not a little 
of the zeal with which I prosecuted botany was due to my 
early connection with this Society. 
