MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT. 375 
believe that if wall space could be found many important works of 
art would find their way to the Atheneum. That Plymouth has 
no Picture Gallery is not one whit less creditable to it than that it 
has no public Museum.* 
Thirdly, I wished to say a few words on art matters and on 
matters archeological, both untouched in my address last year, and 
especially to refer to the Exhibition of the Plymouth Art Club, 
Fourthly, a want which appears to be a growing one is that of 
a magazine devoted to local topics—literary, scientific, and 
artistic. A magazine for the counties of Devon and Cornwall 
ought to find sufficient support to ensure its being successfully 
carried on. A distinguished Member of our Society has suggested 
that the transactions of all local societies might be amalgamated, 
so that the members of a society in one district might be 
acquainted with what was doing in another. Ido not know how 
this could be satisfactorily arranged ; but in a magazine such as I 
have suggested reports of the proceedings of all societies would 
find a place. 
These were the principal topics on which I proposed enlarging. 
The publication of the work of our esteemed Member, Mr. T. R. 
Archer Briggs, The Flora of Plymouth, a most valuable contri- 
bution to local natural history, would have been entitled to notice ; 
and a reference to the life and work as an ornithologist of Mr. 
Edward Hearle Rodd, the only Member whose loss we have had to 
deplore during the last year, and to his posthumous book, The Birds 
of Cornwall, would necessarily have found a place. 
* The plans prepared by Messrs. Hine and Odgers have been since altered, 
so as to include a Picture Gallery the size of the present Lecture Hall. 
