During Flower’s presidency several important events and changes occurred in the affairs of the Zoological Society; and although the management was to a very great extent in the hands of the Secretary, Dr. P. L. Sclater, yet in matters of extreme importance the influence and opinions of the president always made themselves felt—the more so, perhaps, that they were not in special evidence in the case of trivial matters. In the early eighties the Society suffered severely from financial depression, its income in the years 1883 and 1884 falling far below its expenditure. Thanks, however, to the patient sagacity and great administrative powers of the president and secretary, the affairs of the Society were soon put on a much more satisfactory basis, and long before the death of the former, a state of prosperity was reached which had seldom, if ever, been equalled, and certainly never excelled. In the first year of his presidency, Flower delivered one of the Davis lectures in the Society’s Gardens, the subject being birds that do not fly, and he also lectured in the two following years, selecting as his subjects in 1881 firstly whales, and secondly dolphins. The following year was notable on account of the sale to the great American showman, Barnum, of the African elephant “Jumbo.” The reason for thus parting with a valuable and interesting animal was that it was unsafe to keep it in the gardens any longer. The sale, as stated in the “Record” of the Society, caused a good deal of public excitement, but the Council would not have parted with the animal unless satisfactory reasons for so doing had been laid before it by the responsible Executive of the Gardens. A still more important event occurred in 1883, namely the transference of the Society’s Offices and Library from No 11 to No 3 Hanover Square; the freehold of the latter house having been secured by the Council at a cost of £16,250. Such an important transaction would not, we may be assured, have been allowed to take place without the most careful deliberation and consideration on the part of the President. On the first meeting of the Society, held on 1st April 1884, in its new premises, the President took the opportunity of congratulating the Fellows present on the very great improvement in the Meeting-room, the Library, and the Offices, resulting from the change. The Society had occupied the old house, No 11 Hanover Square, for forty-one years, and had long since quite outgrown the accommodation it afforded in all the three departments mentioned above.