USES OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE 157 



throws off orange-coloured dust-like "spores," which attack the 

 Barberry, and so the cycle is completed 1 . 



I still possess his dried specimens of other species of ALcidium 

 attacking various kinds of plants, which he collected for com- 

 parison with that of the Barberry. 



As abortive attempts to find coal had been made in some 

 counties, he pointed out the value of Geology in at least 

 intimating where coal was possible and also where it was 

 impossible. It was not, he said, that a " little knowledge is a 

 dangerous thing," as no one would become learned if he did 

 not begin with a little, but it was the hasty deductions that 

 were valueless and often dangerous. 



As a practical illustration of this under the false assumption 

 that the roots made the " bulb " of mangold-wurzel, he noticed 

 the common practice of stripping off the leaves of plants, and 

 explained to them that unless they were required for fodder, it 

 was a wasteful practice, as the leaves (and not the roots, as they 

 supposed) were the makers of the "bulbs." Indeed, in 1860, 

 Prof, Jas. Buckman proved that it lessens the weight of mangold- 

 wurzel by nearly one half. 



Science was not even shut out at the Hitcham Horticultural 

 Society's Exhibitions, for he always had his own marquee 

 erected and a large board over the entrance with " The Marquee 

 Museum " upon it, the letters being composed of Hitcham fresh- 

 water mussel shells. During the day of the show, he would 

 deliver " lecturets " from time to time on the various specimens 

 exhibited. 



The following are samples of the latter. Cases of land and 

 fresh-water shells of Hitcham. Photographs of microscopic 

 objects enlarged, including the first ever made, by the Rev. 

 H. Kingsley, Tutor of Sidney College, Camb. in 1855. A case 

 containing living specimens of the smallest British Mammal, the 

 harvest mouse. Pearls from British molluscs. The slow-worm 



1 In his printed Report on the Diseases of Wheat, written for private circulation 

 only, he has added in MS. "In specimens of true mildew, the three forms Uredo 

 rubigo, U. lincaris and Puccinia graminis, coexist simultaneously in the same sori, 

 as well as numerous intermediate forms, which establish the specific identity of these 

 fungi." U. rubigo-vera is now regarded as a form of Puccinia rubigo-vera and 

 asperifolii. 



