Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London - University Library

30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Linnffius has said— "The Sciences have in all flourishing countries
been the tenderest object of Government, as they distinguish
civilized nations from barbarians, and make a small European
principality shine more than the greatest Oriental empire."
I am not sure that we have all had the same happy experience
of the usual objects of a Government's tenderest care. But
althoiigh our native pearls may not have the same lustre as those
from the Orient, we shall all agi'ee with the celebrated Swede that
the cultivation of Science may " make a small European principality
shine more than the greatest Oriental empire."
The Eight Hon. Loi-d Avebuey, P.O., F.E.S., then moved: —
That the President be thanked for his excellent Address, and that
he be requested to allow it to be printed and circulated among the
Eellows.
This having been seconded by Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, E.R.S.,
was put by Lord Avebury, and carried unanimously.
The President then addressed Sir Dietrich Beandis, K.C.I.E.,
F.R.S., and in presenting the Linnean Medal to him on behalf of
Prof. EnuARD Strasburger, F.M.L.S., specified the services
which had moved the Council to make this award.
The President said :
—
" Sir Dietrich Brandis, The Council of the Linnean Society,
desiring to do what honour is in their power to your very distinguished
countryman the great botanical histologist and
morpbologist at Bonn, Geheinn-ath Professor Eduard Strasburger,
have singled him out from the botanists of the world as the
recipient this year of the Linnean Gold Medal. Strasburger is
known as a leader in science wherever biological teaching and
biological investigation are carried on, and the recognition of his
great merit is by no means confined to botanists. I well remember
the impression he made upon myself and other zoologists by
his views upon the changes in the nuclear chromosomes in an
address given at the last Oxford meeting of the British Association,
and the great value of his cytological work was known
to us long before that ; while to the student of botany he
must have been an example, a guide, and an inspiration for
nearly forty years. His ' Lehrbuch der Botanik ' (1894) and
' Das botanische Practicum ' ( 1884) are standard works familiar in
our universities and fundamental in their effect on laboratory
practice. Few, if any, amongst botanical investigators have produced
a greater number of works of first-rate importance influencing
the teaching in nearly every branch of the subject. Beginning,
in 1867, with his researches on the development of the stomata,
passing in 1872 to his great work on the Conifers and Gnetacese,
which we recognize as one of the first morphological investigations
from an evolutionary point of view inspired by Darwin,