346 NATURAL SCIENCE. December. 



" will count as a part of its legitimate equipment the provision, as 

 needed, of very liberal opportunities for the staff to visit even distant 

 regions for the study in their native homes of plants which cannot be 

 cultivated even in special gardens in such a manner as to be fully 

 representative"; and some provision will be made for enabling 

 students to utilize new centres of research " without encroaching too 

 far on the limited savings from the small salaries which, as a rule, are 

 drawn by the botanists of the country." And "it is quite certain that 

 within a very few years opinion will have so changed that a 

 considerable number of salaried positions for research work or applied 

 botany will exist," which positions "will compete with the professor- 

 ships in the best universities," &c. Utopia ! And the scientific 

 members of the Staff at Kew Gardens will be provided with suites of 

 rooms at Hampton Court ! 



Turning to the individual, the speaker reminds us that it is to 

 slow and persistent investigation, rather than to sudden inspiration, 

 that we must look for the accomplishment of the greatest collective 

 results. He points to the necessity of breadth of early training ; 

 powers of observation must be well developed, and more discipline in 

 reasoning given than is now customary. After the selection of a 

 subject nothing is so important as system in pursuing it. We can see 

 in others, if not in ourselves, a great waste of energy, resulting from 

 shiftless and ill-considered methods of procedure. " Order and method 

 are absolutely necessary, and next to the clear idea of the end aimed 

 at, I should place immediate making of full and exact notes as their 

 most essential part." Finally, manner of publication is considered. 

 Writers are warned against the habit, especially common in the earlier 

 years of their work, of distributing their papers among a number of 

 journals. Provided they are on kindred subjects, they should, of 

 course, be kept as closely associated as possible when published, so 

 that in seeking one a reader is likely to learn of another. 



The Study of Variation. 



In our September number, under the .heading "A Registry 

 Office for Snails," we ventured some remarks suggested by a Label 

 List for variations in banded snail-shells, sent us for review by Mr. 

 John T. Carrington. Mr. Carrington is very angry, so angry that, in 

 a reply extending over five columns of his own magazine, he brands 

 us as " closet naturalists " and " Superior Scientists," the latter 

 expression being in his opinion particularly " objectionable." We 

 cannot, however, regret our note, since it has drawn from Mr. 

 Carrington an explanation that really is of interest. After all it seems 

 that he really is trying to correlate the existence of these variations 

 with the character of the localities in which they are respectively 

 abundant, and he finds that he can " by change of food and other 

 means alter the band formula of an individual, I think I may say, at 



