/'ro/fssor Oswald I leer. 91 



(tut of tiiicli tin extciiHive subject implies a knowledge of the 

 living habits and changes as affected by temperature of 

 whicii wo arc still far too ignorant. Thus we may bring in 

 evidence the recent papers on half-hardy plants grown in 

 Britain read to this Society. Mr S, Gairdner has reviewed 

 at consideraf)le length Ileer's work amongst the Conifera; 

 {Nature, vol. xxiii.). His charges against it are minute- 

 subdivision and an over-multiplication of species, as w^ell 

 as ignorance of the facts tliat in some species different kinds 

 of leaves are found on the same tree ; thereby invalidating 

 one of Heer's favourite methods of classification. Altogether 

 wc are too precipitate in forming vast inductions as to the 

 climate of the ancient earth. 



" The moral to be drawn from the history of the Sequoias is tliat 

 wo should not place implicit credence in the minimum temperature 

 of the so-called Miocene Greenland, Spitzbcrffen, Vancouver's 

 Isle, Sitku, Arctic America and Asia, as settled by lleer. Such 

 bold argument, as for instance that because Sequoia now requires 

 such and such a temperature, therefore former but dillerent species 

 must have required the same, is entitled to but little deference, yet 

 Heer's facts and opinions arc quoted as axioms by a wide range of 

 workers. Wlicn examined they are seen to be disputable, whether 

 taken as physiological, geological, palreontological, or any other data. 

 Pi'ovisionally they were of use, but the questions depending on the 

 accuracy of the data are so important and the evidence so intricate 

 tliat they should not be deemed settled until some greater amount 

 of care has been bestowed on them." — Nature, vol. xxiii. p. 414. 



Far be it from us by such quotations to depreciate Ileer's 

 heroic life of study and suffering. The detailed titles of 

 published works given below are alone bis sufficient monu- 

 ment. But, in truth, does it not also testify to the glory 

 and vanity alike of a mere scientific career ? The vast 

 field of research opened up on the solitary sick couch at 

 Zurich, has room and scope enough for many other workers 

 to complete its array of laboriously accumulated facts. 



List of Oswald Hecrs more important PiiUications, 



His larger w'orks, specially on Fossil Arctic Botany, were 

 published in various countries, and by different Govern- 

 ments. They respectively bear imprints <if London, Stock- 

 holm, St retersbiirg, and Zurich, 



