C PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
The following Office-bearers were elected :— 
President —F. Buchanan White, M.D., F.L.S., F.E.S. 
Vice-Preside?its —J. Clacher, James Stewart, L.D.S., T. M. M‘Gregor, 
and R. Dow. 
Secretary —S. T. Ellison. 
Treasurer —John Stewart. 
Curator —Colonel H. M. Drummond Hay, C.M.Z.S. 
Librarian —James Coates. 
Editor —Henry Coates. 
Councillors —James Morison; Dr. Andrew Thomson, F.R.S.E., F.C.S., 
F.I.C.; R. Brown, F.E., R.N.; and William Barclay. 
The President delivered the following Address :— 
In some of the botanical papers which have been communicated 
to the Society during the past two or three years, opinions have been 
expressed regarding the claims of certain of our plants to be con¬ 
sidered what is called—for want of better terms—native or indi¬ 
genous. I say for lack of better terms, since, as Mr. Barclay has 
pointed out in his last interesting communication, if indigenous 
means, as it really does, “aboriginal” or “autochthonous,” we have 
no indigenous plants. 
The paper in question is one of the series of valuable exhaustive 
reports on the botany of limited parts of our district with which the 
author has been enriching our Transactions , and, as it dealt with 
a portion of the county whose flora admittedly contains several 
foreign plants, the question required to be discussed. 
Consequently the whole subject of the origin of the British Flora 
had to be considered, and the theories regarding that origin briefly 
reviewed. Mr. Barclay’s paper is not before me, but I think I am 
not mistaken in assuming that what he said may be thus recapitu¬ 
lated. ist, That the last great glacial period had destroyed, or 
nearly destroyed, the flora which had pre-existed in Britain. 2nd, 
That after the close of that glacial period an immigration of plants 
took place from Central and North Europe. 3rd, That it is convenient 
to consider all plants indigenous or native which have not been in¬ 
troduced by the agency of man. 
Agreeing in the main with these statements, I think it will not 
be unprofitable to continue the discussion rather further than was 
possible, or at least expedient, in a paper which was necessarily 
restricted to a small part of Perthshire, and to pass under review 
all the species regarding whose origin there may be divergence of 
opinion. In short, I purpose devoting this address to a considera¬ 
tion of the origin of the Perthshire Flora. 
At the climax of the great ice age the whole of the British 
Islands, except a very narrow strip of the extreme south of England, 
was covered by thick ice. This ice sheet extended across Europe 
a little to the north of the 50th parallel of latitude as far east as 
