190 SHROPSHIRE AND NORTH WALES NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
seed. He adverted to the manner of their classification and arrange¬ 
ment by the older botanists, as compared with the mode and manner 
of Linnaeus, whose different orders he fully displayed. The lecture 
gave the greatest satisfaction to the meeting, who only regretted that 
want of time compelled Mr. Johnston to abridge it. At its close, his 
Lordship addressed the meeting, stating the gratification it afforded 
him of presiding over a society of that description, complimenting the 
ordinary chairman (Mr. Stiff) and the committee on the unprecedented 
success which had attended their exertions, and assuring them that he 
should be most anxious to support and promote their interests; and 
concluded with announcing that their other shows would take place 
at the Surrey Zoological Gardens, in the months of June, July, and 
September, when, from the number of influential growers and 
amateurs who have enrolled themselves members, it is confidently 
expected they will excel any thing of the kind yet produced. 
Exhibitors: — Messrs. Harding, Gaines, Fairbairn, Catleugh, 
Hidolph, Saddlier, Clark, Chandler, Iliff, Laycock, Love, Lidgard, 
Hill, Conway, Redding, gardener to Mrs. Marryatt, Wimbledon House; 
Smee, Buchanan, Dickson, Bowler, Cooper, Young of Epsom, Rogers, 
Young, and Little. Prizes were awarded to Harding for auriculas; 
to Dickson for best seedling ditto ; Harding for polyanthus; to Lowe 
for hyacinths ; to Chandler for miscellanies ; Young of Epsom for 
best specimen plant; Saddlier for best pears, and Conway for cucum¬ 
bers. Extra prizes to Redding for a fine specimen plant; Catleugh 
for geraniums; Little for hyacinths, and Mr. Lowe for best bulbous 
plants. 
Shropshire and North Wales Natural History Society. 
(From the Analyst.)—The first general meeting of the members of 
this Society was held in the temporary Town-hall, Shrewsbury, in 
November last, and was attended by a numerous assemblage of the 
rank and respectability of the county, who evinced the deepest interest 
in the proceedings. 
The president (the Venerable Samuel Butler, D. D. F. R. S. 
Archdeacon of Derby) opened the business of the day by delivering the 
following powerful Address :— 
tft The most important agent in the natural world is light, which, 
with its concomitant, heat, sets in motion all the animal and vegetable 
world, arrays the whole creation in its variety of gorgeous hues, vivifies 
the dormant seeds of plants, and causes even inert matter to assume 
new combinations and new affinities, and to ferment, as it were, with 
the germ of vitality. What light is to the material, knowledge is to 
the intellectual, world. Nay, we even use the word metaphorically, 
