June 2 2, 1876] 



NATURE 



173 



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A MUSEUM FOR INDIA AND THE COLONIES 



T the meeting of the International Congress of 

 Orientalists in London in 1874, Dr. Forbes Watson 

 read a paper in which he described (see Nat URE, vol. x. 

 p. 421) the plan of an Indian Museum, Library, and 

 Institute. This paper was afterwards published (see 

 Nature, vol. xi. p. 413). Dr. Watson has just published 

 a pamphlet 1 in which the proposed India Museum and 

 Institute has very naturally expanded into an Imperial 

 Museum for India and the Colonies. What Dr. Watson 

 proposes is . that on the site of the old Fife House, 

 on the Victoria Embankment, at the Thames end of the 

 new Northumberland Avenue, a large and suitable build- 

 ing should be erected, to consist of two divisions, one 

 devoted to the interests and products of India, and the 

 other to those of the various British Colonies. The hbrary 

 and collections which already exist in connection with 

 India are acknowledged to be of great value and import- 

 ance, and their location in an appropriate building in a 

 central position would greatly increase their usefulness. 

 The arrangement at South Kensington is of course only 

 temporary. Now that Dr. Watson has proposed a plan 

 for an institution which would do for the other colonies 

 what the India Museum and Library attempt to do for 

 India, one wonders why steps have not been taken long 

 ago to supply what appears to be a real want. The sub- 

 ject has, however, engaged for years the attention of those 

 who take an active interest in the Colonies, and several 

 of the Colonies have gone so far as to vote money for the 

 establishment of a Colonial Museum in London. Few 

 people realise the importance of the Colonies to Britain ; 

 their extent, population, and the value of their com- 

 mercial transactions are forcibly exhibited by Dr. Wat- 

 son in his pamphlet, which we would recommend those 

 to read who wish to have some idea of the value 

 of the Colonies to the mother country. From a scien- 

 tific point of view such an institution as is proposed 

 would be of great interest and value. British Colonies 

 are to be found everywhere over the surface of the 

 globe, and embrace all climates and every variety 

 of natural productions. Students of natural science 

 would find a properly arranged collection of our colo- 

 nial productions of great use, especially if combined 

 with a proper library, and no better method could be 

 devised of educating the public generally as to the 

 extent, importance, physical condition, and natural pro- 

 ducts of " Greater Britain." 



Dr. Watson shows that from every point of view, 

 political, commercial, and scientific, the establishment of 

 such an all-embracing Imperial Institute would be of the 

 greatest benefit both to this country and her Colonies, 

 and would no doubt serve to bind them more closely 

 together. We are sure his scheme needs only to be 

 known in its details to recommend itself to the pubhc, 

 and we are confident that if steps were taken to move the 

 proper quarter, the accomplishment of the scheme would 

 be only a question of time. The Colonies themselves are 

 willing to bear a share of the expense necessary, and 

 it would only be fair that this country, through the 

 Government, should meet the Colonists as far as it can. 



Into the details of Dr. Watson's plan we have not space 

 to enter. There would, as we have said, be virtually two 

 museums under one building. In the division devoted to 

 the extra- India Colonies, the museum representative of each 

 Colony would be kept distinct, so that the whole would be 

 rather a federation of museums than one museum. Then 

 there would be a Colonial Library and Reading-room ; 

 provision would be made for giving a home in the Insti- 

 tution to the Asiatic Society and the Colonial Institute ; 

 by means of " Trade Museums," a full representation 

 would be given of Colonial produce, and in the proposed 



I "The Imperial Museum for India and the Colonies" By J. Forbes 

 Watson, M.D., &c.. Director of the India Museum. (Allea and Co.) 



institution the offices of the various Colonial agents now 

 dispersed over London could be established. The advan- 

 tages of such an Institution are well summed up by Dr. 

 Watson in the following paragraph : — 



" The combined India and Colonial Museums, estab- 

 lished according to the above plan, would in every way 

 become a living institution worthily representing the past 

 history and the present resources of the British Empire 

 throughout the world. Such an institution would afford 

 not only exhaustive materials for study and research, but 

 would likewise be suitable for reference by the Indian and 

 Colonial authorities, by men of business or of letters, and 

 by officials or emigrants intending to proceed to India or 

 the Colonies, Thus it would be instrumental in furthering 

 actual work or business, whether scientific, political, or 

 commercial. At the same time, through its co-operation 

 with the Asiatic Society and the Colonial Institute, through 

 its reading-room, its lectures and publications, through 

 the Trade Museums and other typical collections distri- 

 buted all over the country, as well as throughout the most 

 important places in India and the Colonies, all the infor- 

 mation would be rendered available to the whole 

 Empire." 



FERTILISA TION OF FLO WERS B Y INSECTS 1 



XIV. 



Flowers Fertilised by the Wings of Butterflies. 



IN my former articles many plants are referred to which 

 are fertilised by butterflies, whose proboscis, head, 

 legs, or whole underside comes into contact with the 

 anthers and stigmas of the flowers visited ; but hitherto no 

 plant has been known which is fertilised by the fluttering 

 wings of butterflies. My brother, Fritz Miiller (Itajahy, 

 Prov. St. Catharina, Brazil), has lately observed a species 

 of Hedychium (Piperaceas) whose bright red scentless 

 flowers, opening in the morning, are wonderfully adapted 

 to this manner of fertilisation. I give his description, as 

 far as possible, in his own words. 



The flowers of this Hedychium are collected in groups 

 of 4-6, which are enveloped by a common bract ; in every 

 group only one flower is ever developed at the same time, 

 this commonly fading before the next one has opened. The 

 groups of flowers are arranged in aliernating whorls, each 

 consisting of three groups (Fig. 89) ; the spike thus 

 formed reaches 0*25 metre in length, and is composed of 

 six longitudinal rows of flowers, each row containing 

 about ten. 



The corolla-tubes, about o"o3 m. long, 0*5 and i mm. 

 wide, are completely enclosed by the very firm common 

 bract ; moreover, each by its calyx closely embracing it, 

 by its special bract and partly by the bracts of the older 

 flowers of the same group. Thus the honey, which on the 

 morning of the first day fills up about one-third, on the 

 morning of the second day about two-thirds of the length 

 of the tube, is excellently protected from being stolen by 

 piercing the tube, of which some Apidae, especially Hylo- 

 copa, are exceedingly fond. The flowers are placed nearly 

 horizontally, the stamen a httle above, the lip a little 

 below a horizontal plain intersecting the entrance of the 

 honey-tube. The lip, which in other species of He- 

 dychium is expanded level and almost sessile, is 

 here long stalked, and rolled up into a channel of 001 m. 

 in length provided with a funnel-shaped entrance. The 

 entrance of the lip-channel (Fig. 89 A) being about 

 equally distant from the two longitudinal rows of anthers 

 and stigmas Fig. 89 {B, C) between which it is situated, 

 both rows are aJike struck by the wings of the butterflies 

 flying on and off. 



The filament is 47 mm. long on the forenoon of the 

 first day and somewhat bent upwards, so that the pollen- 

 covered side of the anther looks outwards or even a little 



> Continued from voL xiii. p. 294. 



