Noy. 1908.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 7 
Scheme was a splendid conception for the development of 
local patriotism and the association of men in the common 
aim of maintaining and defending our laws, our liberties, 
our homes, and our empire. But there are other fields for 
the development of patriotic action. Why not have a 
territorial army for regional research, a brotherhood of men 
of light and leading, for the attainment of a wider culture 
than is possible to isolated workers, a training and equip- 
ment for world-wide service? All honour to the men who 
give time and labour and thought to studying the art of 
war, and who are ready, if need be, to shed their blood at 
the call of duty. But no less honour to the men who give 
their days, and ofttimes their nights as well, to the building 
up of that intellectual enlightenment and culture which, 
after all, are more valuable and more enduring national 
assets than great armies or a fleet that secures the 
supremacy of the sea. He who can make two blades of 
grass grow where formerly there was only one, is a greater 
benefactor of his nation than the man who designs a ship 
of war superior to the latest Dreadnought. To add to the 
sum of human knowledge is a higher patriotism than to 
pile up implements of war. To unlock the treasure-house 
of nature and reveal the secret glories of the temple of 
science so that, with a fuller knowledge of his environment, 
man may better achieve the purpose of human life, is a 
worthier ambition than to be the inventor or expert mani- 
pulator of cunningly devised instruments of death. It 
was because I felt the Buchan Field Club, which might be 
widely copied, was such a Territorial Army of Regional 
Research for the furthering of this patriotic ambition that 
I, in the absence of any meetings of the Council, sent to 
them, as your President, by the hands of Mr. C. S. France, 
a letter of cordial congratulation from this Society on the 
celebration of their majority. 
NOTE UPON SOME SEA-WEEDS FROM THE ISLAND OF DoMINIca, 
British West Inpies. By Mr. SyMIncTON GRIEVE. 
In January 1906, when in London, before starting upon 
a trip to the island of Dominica, I was asked by my friend 
Mr. E. M. Holmes to try and collect some sea-weeds there. 
