1 86 NOTES AND COMMENTS [march 



The Functions of Marine Stations. 



What are the functions of a local Marine Station ? The question is 

 suggested by the perusal of the " Twelfth Annual Eeport of the 

 Liverpool Marine Biology Committee," which has just reached us. It 

 contains not only a general account of the work of the Port Erin 

 Station during the past year, but a stirring address by Prof. Herdman 

 on some proposed extensions of its work. Some twelve years ago 

 the Liverpool Committee began the investigation of the marine life of 

 the bay ; since that time their sphere of operations has gradually 

 extended, as the members have plunged more and more deeply into 

 the work, and now we have an eloqueut protest from Prof. Herdman 

 against artificial geographical limitations, and an appeal for means to 

 carry on work on a more elaborate scale. The problems of distribu- 

 tion, which in their local aspect were one of the prime objects of the 

 Committee's investigation, prove to be insoluble unless attacked on a 

 large scale. The migration of food-fishes, again primarily a local 

 question, is intimately bound up with the plankton-bearing currents of 

 the open seas, and it is in these open seas, and not merely in local 

 waters, that investigation must be carried on. So it is with the other 

 problems which have forced themselves on the notice of the workers 

 at the station. Prof. Herdman therefore appeals, in the first place, for 

 a British Prince of Monaco, whose yacht may enable the Committee to 

 carry out an extensive series of observations in the open sea, and also 

 for funds to improve the station, and carry out adequately the publica- 

 tion of a series of memoirs on common marine animals — another 

 scheme at present in contemplation. We sincerely trust that this 

 appeal to the merchant princes of Liverpool will not be in vain, and 

 that they will hasten to wipe away the reproach of their apathy as 

 contrasted with the liberality with which wealthy Americans so often 

 endow science. We cannot, indeed, but regard it as remarkable that a 

 wealthy city like Liverpool, with all its traditions as a seaport, should 

 be unable to offer its Marine Station more than the very small sum at 

 present at its disposal. If successful and persevering work with small 

 means deserves encouragement, it certainly should not be lacking to 

 the Port Erin Station. We wish Prof. Herdman and his colleagues all 

 success in the carrying out of their enlarged conception of local 

 research. 



Salt-developed Succulence 



Halophytes we have always with us, and also the problem of the 

 causes underlying the succulent xerophytic structure so characteristic 

 of this group of almost aquatic plants. The opinion usually held has 

 been to the effect that the saline character of the water rendered its 



