BRYMNER 



967 



BRYOPHYTES 



he was as well the official interpreter of Great 

 Britain to the United States. No other man 

 has contributed more to the perpetuation of 

 friendly relations between these two countries 

 than has James Bryce. 



This unique service is but a small part of 

 Bryce's activities. He was born on May 10, 

 1838, at Belfast, Ireland, where his father was 

 for many years head master of a school. In- 

 clination led the son back to Glasgow, his 

 father's home. After completing his course in 

 the high school and the University of Glas- 

 gow, he went to Trinity College, Oxford, where 

 he took his degree in 1862. In 1867 Bryce was 

 called to the bar, and only three years later, in 

 1870, was given the important position of 

 Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford. He 

 had already won distinction in 1862 by the 

 publication of his history, The Holy Roman 

 Empire; this study, written when he was only 

 twenty-four years old, is as authoritative in its 

 field as The American Commonwealth. His 

 later books, all maintaining a high standard, 

 include Impressions of South Africa; Studies in 

 History and Jurisprudence; Studies in Con- 

 temporary Biography, and South America. 

 The last volume is a keen, critical appreciation 

 of conditions in Brazil, Argentina and other 

 countries. 



Bryce continued to lecture on civil law at 

 Oxford until 1893, when the pressure of public 

 and semi-public duties compelled him to resign. 

 He was elected to the House of Commons in 

 1880, and served continuously until 1906. In 

 Gladstone's third and fourth ministries Bryce 

 held several positions, and again in 1905 and 

 1906 he sat in the Cabinet as Chief Secretary 

 for Ireland. Home Rule had one of its strong- 

 est supporters in him, but it could not be intro- 

 duced during his term of office (see HOME 

 RULE). 



In recognition of his many services to Great 

 Britain he was raised to the peerage as Viscount 

 Bryce in 1914. In the course of his long life 

 many honors have been awarded him, including 

 honorary degrees from Edinburgh, Aberdeen, 

 Glasgow, Saint Andrew's, Cambridge, Oxford, 

 Harvard, Princeton, Buenos Aires and other 

 universities. He was at one time president of 

 the British Academy, and holds memberships 

 in many foreign learned societies. 



BRYMNER, WILLIAM (1855- ), a Cana- 

 dian painter, born at Greenock, Scotland, edu- 

 cated at Saint Francis College, Richmond, Que., 

 and Saint Therese College, Saint Therese, Que. 

 Later he studied art in Paris under Bouguereau 



and T. Robert Fleury. He received a gold 

 medal for painting at the Pan-American Ex- 

 position at Buffalo and at the Louisiana Pur- 

 chase Exposition at Saint Louis. Since 1886 

 he has conducted the advanced art classes of 

 the Art Association of Montreal. He has been 

 president of the Royal Canadian Academy of 

 Art since 1,909. 



His father, DOUGLAS BRYMNER (1823-1902), 

 was a Scotchman who settled in Canada in 

 1857 and became one of the foremost journal- 

 ists of his day. In 1872 he was appointed the 

 first Dominionarchivist, a position in which he 

 rendered great service to American and Cana- 

 dian historians by bringing order into the 

 archives and by publishing extracts from many 

 of the precious manuscripts stored there. 



BRYN MAWR, brin mar, COLLEGE, one of 

 the few distinguished institutions for the higher 

 education of women in America, located at 

 Bryn Mawr, Pa., a few miles from Philadelphia. 

 It was founded in 1880 by Joseph W. Taylor, 

 who was a member of the Society of Friends, 

 or Quakers. The college is characterized by 

 its high requirements for admission and the 

 general culture and scholarship of its students. 

 The buildings are of gray stone, in Gothic style. 

 These include a library, containing about 55,000 

 volumes, a science hall, a lecture hall, gym- 

 nasium, hospital and six dormitories for stu- 

 dents. A faculty of sixty members is main- 

 tained, and the college has about 450 students. 

 The endowment now exceeds $1,000,000. 



The aim of Bryn Mawr is to make the col- 

 legiate education of women very much like that 

 of men in the best men's colleges. Courses in 

 domestic science, art and the like are not 

 offered. The students are encouraged to be 

 independent, and to prepare themselves for 

 professional, literary or public, rather than 

 domestic, careers. 



BRYOPHYTES, bri'ofites. The plants of 

 the world which do not produce flowers are 

 divided into four great groups, or orders, and 

 of these the bryophytes are one. The word 

 means mosslike plants, and the bryophytes in- 

 clude the mosses and the related liverworts. 

 Some of these plants have leaves, while others 

 are leafless, but none of them has true roots. 

 Perhaps the most outstanding fact in connec- 

 tion with the bryophytes is what is known as 

 alternation of generations; that is, the plants 

 have different phases which do not resemble 

 each other any more than do the caterpillar 

 and the butterfly which develops from it. See 

 LIVERWORTS; MOSSES. 



