Notes and Comment. 153 



materials taken out from the soil. The tree is protecting at the 

 same time its ground by a thorough and enduring vegetation 

 against the noxious influences of wind and sun." 



How a pupil of Agassiz relieved himself under the stress of 

 the once prevailing hypothesis of special creation is told by N. 

 S. Shaler in his autobiography. "He was puzzled by the transi- 

 tional varieties between many of the species of molluscs he was 

 studying, especially those occurring among the fresh water 

 gasterpods. On one occasion I saw him throw one of these 

 vexatious shapes on the floor, after he had studied it a long time, 

 put his heel upon it and grind it to powder, remarking, 'that's 

 the proper way to serve a damned transitional form.' " 



At about the time of writing this paragraph the International 

 Congress of Botany at Brussels, May 14-22, 1910, should re- 

 ceive the reports and propositions of the Commission of Phyto- 

 geographical Nomenclature elected at the Vienna Congress in 

 1905. 



This commission consists of Briquet, Adamovic (Vienna), 

 Beck von IMannagetta (Prague), Drude (Dresden), Engler 

 (Berlin), Flahault (Montpellier), Harshberger (Philadelphia), 

 Schroeter (Zurich), W. G. Smith (Edinburgh), Warburg (Berlin), 

 Warming (Copenhagen), and, as was to be expected, has pre- 

 pared a comprehensive and clearly stated report, which, if 

 adopted, should go far to bring about a more settled and satis- 

 factory state of things. 



Certain fundamental principles are enunciated which ap- 

 pear well nigh self-evident. Two or three of these are the fol- 

 lowing : 



(1) Those who work at the same science ought to try to 

 understand one another; pedantic pretensions to erudition are 

 useless or dangerous to science. 



(2) It is necessary to bring scientific language as closely as 

 possible into line with ordinary language. This is the surest 

 means of avoiding the alienation from the study of science of 

 those who are drawn towards it and who can help in its progress. 



(3) While leaving everyone full liberty to express himself 

 as he pleases, it seems necessary to insist on one point — The con- 

 dition essential to the avoidance of ambiguity is that every au- 



