106
The President's Address.
voted to the respective donors. Among the first con-
tributions of value to the Museum is the Herbarium
of mosses and lichens, formed by Richard Warner, pre-
sented by Sir J. Clarke Jervoise, Bart. I am also glad to be
able to inform you that the Rev. Francis Walker, of Dry
Drayton, has recently offered us his ornithological and ento-
mological collections formed in that parish. As the
specimens were all collected in the neighbouring county of
Cambridgeshire, this generous offer has been accepted, and,
in accordance with the wishes of the donor, the collection
will be kept separate in our Museum. I trust that at no
very distant period it may be the duty of your President to
announce that we have outgrown our present accommoda-
tion ; this will be a sure sign that we have workers in our
midst, and an appeal for disestablishment from our present
quarters may then be met by substantial support.
In the course of our endeavours to promote science in
this neighbourhood, a series of winter lectures has been
commenced, the first of which, on Forest Animals, delivered
in November by our well-known colleague Mr. J. E. Hart-
ing, has been published in full in our "Transactions." The
second lecture of the session, delivered at the beginning of
this month by Mr. A. R. Wallace, on "The Natural His-
tory of Islands," must yet be fresh in your memories.
Although this discourse was replete with facts and argu-
ments of the highest importance, and we had the privilege
of hearing directly from the mouth of the investigator a
most masterly exposition of those subjects which he has
made his life-study, we cannot fairly consider it within our
power to print this lecture verbatim. The subjects treated
of by Mr. Wallace will be found in one of the Manchester
Science Lectures, and fully elaborated in his "Island Life,"
to which work I may refer any of our members who
require further information ; the lecturer's remarks, more-
over, covered a field too wide to be considered as legiti-
mately coming within our province as a local Club. We
shall hope to continue these lectures from time to time
during the present session at least, and as their object is