46 



NA TURE 



[November ii, 1897 



existence from the gametophyte, it must possess assimilatory 

 tissue of its own, and this is necessarily developed first in the 

 ontogeny ; but it does not necessarily follow, therefore, that the 

 foliage leaf was the primary organ in the phylogeny of the 

 sporophyte. The provision for the development of a large 

 number of spores in the thallophytes, so that many may perish 

 and still some remain to perpetuate the race, is laid hold on by 

 the bryophytes, where the mass of spore-bearing cells increases 

 and becomes more stable, for purposes of the greatest im- 

 portance. Instead of perishing, some of the sporogenous tissue 

 forms protecting envelopes, then supporting and conducting 

 tissue, and finally in the pteridophytes and spermatophytes 

 nutritive and assimilatory structures are developed. Nature is 

 prodigal in the production of initial elementary structures and 

 organs. But while making abundant provision for the life of 

 the organism through the favoured few, she has learned to turn 

 an increasing number of the unfavoured ones to good account. 

 Acted upon by external agents and by internal forces, and a 

 changing environment, advance is made, step by step, to higher, 

 m ore stable, and prolonged periods. 



While we have not yet solved any one of these problems, the 

 results of experimental morphology are sufficient to indicate the 

 great importance of the subject and the need of fuller data from 

 a much larger number of plants. If thus far the results of ex- 

 periments have not been in all cases sufficient to overthrow the 

 previous notions entertained touching the subjects involved, they 

 at least show that there are good grounds for new thoughts and 

 new interpretations, or for the amendment of the existing 

 theories. While there is not time for detailing even briefly 

 another line of experiment, viz. that upon leaf arrangement, I 

 might simply call attention to the importance of the experiments 

 conducted by Schumann and Weisse from the standpoint of 

 Schwendener's mechanical theory of leaf arrangement. Weisse 

 shows that the validity of the so-called theory of the spiral 

 arrangement of the leaves on the axis may be questioned, and 

 that there are good grounds for the opening of the discussion 

 again. It seems to me, therefore, that the final judgment upon 

 either side of all these questions cannot now be given. It is for 

 the purpose of bringing fresh to the minds of the working 

 botanists the importance of the experimental method in dealing 

 with these problems of nature, that this discussion is presented as 

 a short contribution to the subject of experimental morphology 

 of plants. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — Sir Archibald Geikie has been appointed the 

 Romanes Lecturer for 1898. 



The Delegates of the Common University Fund have ap- 

 pointed Mr. William John Smith Jerome Lecturer in Medical 

 Pharmacology and Materia Medica for the years, 1898-99. 



Cambridge. — Mr. J. H. Grace, bracketed second wrangler 

 1895, has been elected to a fellowship at Peterhouse. 



Mr. S. F, Harmer, Superintendent of the Museum of 

 Zoology, has been approved for the degree of Doctor of 

 Science. 



Mr. H. K. Anderson, Demonstrator of Physiology, has 

 been elected to a Drosier Fellowship at Gonville and Caius 

 College. 



Dr. A. A. Kanthack, of St. John's College, has been elected 

 to the Professorship of Pathology, in the place of the late Prof. 

 C. S. Roy. 



The University Lectureship in Midwifery is vacant by the 

 resignation of Mr. E. H. Douty. Applications for appointment 

 are to be sent to the Vice-Chancellor by November 15. 



The General Board of Studies have issued a report in which 

 they propose that the time-honoured examination in Paley's 

 "Evidences" shall be discontinued, and that candidates for 

 honours shall in the previous Examination be required to pass 

 in English, French, or (ierman, and also in Mechanics, Physics, 

 or Logic. The report is likely to be keenly discussed. 



The State Medicine Syndicate report that in the present year 

 seventy candidates have offered themselves for examination in 

 Sanitary Science, and that thirty-four were approved and re- 

 ceived the University diploma in Public Health. 



The degree of M.A. honoris causa is to be conferred on Mr. 

 C. R. Marshall, Assistant in Pharmacology to the Downing 

 Profes5or of Medicine. 



Among the new Fellows elected at St. John's College on 

 November 9, are Mr. W. McDougall, First Class Natural 

 Sciences Tripos, 1892-94. and Mr. T. J. I' A. Bromwich, 

 Senior Wrangler 1895, First Class Division I. Mathematical 

 Tripos Part II., 1896. 



It is announced that Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, F. R.S., has 

 signified his desire to found an educational museum at Selby, 

 his native town. 



In connection with North Dakota Agricultural College and 

 Station a new chemical laboratory is in course of construction. 

 Its estimated cost will be about 5000/. 



Dr. Mollier, of Gottingen, has been appointed professor of 

 mechanical engineering in the Technological Institute at 

 Dresden. 



Science states that the U.S. Geological Survey has practically 

 completed the distribution of the Educational Series of Rocks, 

 175 sets of 156 specimens each having been sent out during the 

 past summer to universities, colleges and technical institutions 

 in the United States. There remains a small number of incom- 

 plete sets, which will be placed in certain smaller colleges. The 

 Educational Series were prepared by the Survey with much care, 

 for the purpose of aiding students in acquiring a general and 

 special knowledge of rocks, and promoting the study of 

 geology. 



The Clerk to the Drapers' Company has informed the 

 Registrar of the University College of North Wales, Bangor, 

 that the Company will modify, in the sense suggested by the 

 College, the conditions attached to their grant of 1000/. towards 

 stocking and equipping the College farm. The grant is there- 

 fore now made conditionally upon a further sum of 3000/. being 

 raised towards the same purpose before the end of the present 

 session. It has been arranged that students pursuing the 

 ordinary agricultural course at the College shall in future reside 

 for a part of that course in the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 farm, and thus get the benefit of practical training, side by side 

 with the theoretical instruction. The College enters upon its 

 tenancy of Lledwigan this week. 



NO. 1463. VOL. 57] 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



The current number (July) of the Monthly Weather Review 

 (Washington) contains a paper on the observation of halo 

 phenomena. This is a translation of a reprint of an article by the 

 Rev. K. Schips in the Year-book of the Natural History Associa- 

 tion, a copy of which we have received. A committee has been 

 formed in Germany for the study of halos, and a request is made 

 for the regular observation of these phenomena, as it appears 

 that the subject of meteorological optics receives no great atten- 

 tion, except in Japan. The paper will be found instructive to 

 both observers and students. — The equations of hydrodynamics 

 in a form suitable for application to problems connected with the 

 movements of the earth's atmosphere, by J. Cottier. This con- 

 tribution is of much importance to those who are studying the 

 fundamental problem of meteorology. Mr. Cottier, who was a 

 student of brilliant promise, unfortunately died on August 17. — 

 Rain gushes in thunderstorms, by the editor (Prof. Cleveland 

 Abbe). Several plausible explanations of this phenomenon have 

 been put forward from time to time, but have been rejected as 

 erroneous. It is at present an open question whether the 

 gushes of rain bring about the formation of lightning, or vice 

 versa. Several suggestions are made by the editor, which re- 

 quire to be tested by further experiment. — Among various other 

 notes there is an interesting one, entitled "Kites at the Chicago 

 Conference, August 1893." This method of obtaining inform- 

 ation relating to the upper air is daily becoming more popular, 

 and seems likely to lead to useful results. 



Bollettino della Societa Sismologica Italiana, vol. iii. N. 2, 

 i897.^0n an old mercurial seismometer designed by A. 

 Cavalli, by G. Agamennone. — Geological observations on the 

 Florentine earthquake of May 18, 1895, by C. De Stefani. An 

 abstract of a memoir published in the Annali of the Central 

 Meteorological Office. — Notes of earthquakes recorded in Italy 

 (February 4-18, 1897), by G. Agamennone, the most important 

 being the earthquake of Sicily and Calabria of February 11-12, 

 and five earthquakes of unknown but distant origin, one on 

 February 7, two on February 13, and two on February 15. 



