The Meeting of the British Association at York. 177 
THE MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 
AT YORK. 
I |HE proceedings of Section K at York were pleasant and 
profitable, though unexciting. The Address delivered by the 
President, Professor F. W. Oliver, was divided into two parts. The 
first dealt with the Evolution of the Seed, and was a skilfully 
balanced and masterly summary of this topic, in the development 
of which the President’s own work has formed one of the chief 
turning points. In the second the somewhat unusual course was 
followed of attacking a problem of what may be called botanical 
“high policy.” The particular topic dealt with was the proper 
function of national herbaria and museums and their relation to 
active botanical research. Professor Oliver’s out-spoken criticism 
of existing conditions has, not unnaturally, given rise to some 
dissent, of which evidence may be found in the present number of 
this journal. 
A feature of the meeting was the devotion of no less than 
three mornings to the discussion of single topics, and the rather 
careful organisation of these discussions beforehand. The method 
adopted was to invite some one or more persons to open the discussion 
of a given subject, by means either of a general address on the 
present position of the subject or by the communication of papers 
containing new facts likely to lead to debate. Botanists likely to 
be in a position to contribute usefully to such a debate were informed 
some time beforehand of the intention to hold it and were invited 
to contribute, abstracts of the opening papers being distributed to 
them as soon as possible, so that they were acquainted with the 
facts to be disclosed and the lines to be taken before the meeting. 
Though it is neither possible nor desirable to limit the sectional 
meetings entirely to proceedings of this type, it is believed that the 
method described is on the whole productive of the most interesting 
and profitable results. 
Of course the success of any given discussion depends in the 
first place on the selection of suitable topics of proper scope. 
There is the danger of selecting too wide a subject, with the result 
that the different speakers are apt to deal with quite distinct aspects, 
and unless the opener has the somewhat rare power of drawing all 
the threads together in his reply, the impression left on the hearers 
is liable to be rather inconclusive, not to say chaotic. On the 
