MEETING OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
203 
original research ; when members of the Union generally show, by 
their attendance at the annual meetings, that they appreciate the 
great advantages offered to them at the cost of so much time and 
trouble on the part of the local workers, then the Union will be 
pronounced a great success ! 
But the very fact of the apathy which at present prevails is an 
argument for the existence of the Union and for the need of more 
earnest efforts to extend its usefulness. 
DARWIN MEDAL. 
The Darwin Gold Medal was instituted at the meeting of the 
Midland Union of Scientific Societies held at Northampton in 1880. 
The scheme under which the Medal is awarded states that it is given 
to the author of the best paper sent in to the “ Midland Naturalist ” 
by a specified date; the said paper, or papers, containing evidences of 
independent and original research on the part of the author. The 
special subject for which the Medal is awarded varies from year to year. 
The previous awards have been :— 
1881— Geology, Mr. E. Wilson, F.G.S., of Nottingham. 
1882— Zoology, Professor A. M. Marshall, M.A., M.D., D.Sc., and 
Mr. W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E. 
1883— Archaeology, not awarded. 
For the present year—1884—the subject was Botany. At a meeting 
of the Management Committee of the Union, held on April 30th, the 
Committee proceeded to the election of the adjudicators of the Medal. 
The five eminent botanists whose names we give below were requested 
to undertake this duty, and we are glad to state that they individually 
consented to read and to report upon the papers submitted to them:— 
Professor C. C. Babington, of Cambridge ; Dr. Braithwaite and 
Maxwell T. Master's, Esq., M.D., of London; W. Mathews, Esq., of 
Birmingham; and F. T. Mott, Esq., F.R.G.S., of Leicester. 
Of the five adjudicators, four agree in awarding the first place to 
the work of Mr. W. B. Grove, B.A., of Birmingham, to whom the 
Medal is therefore awarded. The following extracts from their reports 
may be given :— 
In compliance with the request which the Council of the Union did me the 
honour to make, I beg to say that I have carefully examined all the papers 
specified. 
If it be requisite to single out one in particular, as meriting the award of the 
Darwin medal, I should select that of Mr. W. B. Grove on the Pilobolidce as 
specially fulfilling the requirements laid down. In that paper the morphology 
and life-history of an interesting group of fungi are sketched with a clearness 
indicative of accurate observation and full perception of the general morpho¬ 
logical and genealogical questions involved. Similar remarks apply to the 
paper on “ Nomad Fungi,” by the same gentleman, and in which he shows such 
an appreciation of the present state of our knowledge on the subject as leads 
him, in some degree, to forecast the probable future classification of these plants. 
Mr. Grove’s paper on the Myxomycetes is marked by the like characteristics. I 
venture, therefore, to express my opinion that Mr. Grove, on the ground of 
“ independent and original research” as exemplified in all his communications, 
and particularly in the one first named, has earned a claim to the award of the 
Darwin medal. Maxwell T. Masters, M.D., F.R.S. 
Having regard to the terms under which the medal is awarded, I consider 
Mr. Grove entitled to it for the “ independent and original research ” of which 
there is evidence in his paper on the “ Pilobolidae.” Wm. Mathews. 
Mr. Grove has done so much good work for the Union and for the 
“ Midland Naturalist,” as well as for the cause of science generally, 
that it is with especial pleasure that the Council find the high merit of 
his papers to be recognised by such well-known and independent 
authorities. 
