3.26. NATURAL SCIENCE. 



JULV. 



occur in the deposit, while genera which inhabit abyssal depths are- 

 associated with others now restricted to shallow seas. The authors 

 of this careful and detailed monograph are to be congratulated on 

 the combination of accurate systematic diagnosis, with a full 

 consideration of the affinities of the fauna. The plates are of 

 exceptional merit. 



Epping Flora. 



In the pamphlet on the " Organisation of Science," which we 

 noticed last month, the author empties the vials of his contempt upon 

 the compilers of county floras, which he calls " a kind of drivel over 

 which life, and time, and print, are wasted." The author seems to 

 forget that if naturalists are born, not made, it is collecting that has a 

 good deal to do with the bearing : most men begin as collectors, and 

 if this work is to be discouraged as waste of time, the next generation 

 of naturalists is likely to be much smaller than the present. Except 

 with those who agree with the writer of that pamphlet, we think 

 most naturalists would strongly disapprove of the planting of wild 

 plants from one district in the few small tracts of virgin land we have. 

 We notice in the last number of the Essex Natuyalist that Damesonia 

 has recently been found in a very well known pond in Epping 



Forest. 



" The thing is neither so very fine nor rare ; 

 But the question how the devil it got there " 



is a problem that is seriously puzzling the botanists of the 

 Essex Field Club. There can be no doubt that such a plant as 

 Damesonia (better known by its later name of AcUnocarpiis) could 

 not possibly have escaped notice, while it is difficult to see how its 

 introduction can have been effected by natural agencies. On the 

 whole, one is bound to conclude that a too enthusiastic member of 

 some acclimatisation society must have planted it there. If this sort 

 of thing were done extensively it would hopelessly destroy the 

 interest in the distribution of our native plants, which is the prin- 

 cipal incentive to study among a large class of local workers. If 

 this be the true explanation of this case, if the Epping botanists 

 could only find out the man who has helped to muddle up the 

 Forest record, that pond would probably receive an addition to its 

 fauna as well as its flora. 



The Dearth of Specialists. 



In March and May we referred to Mr. F. Du Cane Godman's 

 remarks on the increasing difficulty of obtaining specialists to under- 

 take the work of describing many groups of insects. Mr. Whymper's 

 " Travels amongst the Great Andes of the Equator," of which a 

 second edition is in the press, affords an illustration of this difficulty, 

 for though the expedition was made twelve years ago, the supple- 



