June 19, 1879] 



NATURE 



173 



hypotheses to the most crucial and varied practical tests, 

 and conclusively proved their truth, or determined the 

 limits of error involved by them. He had the power of 

 arranging almost intuitively simple experiments for quali- 

 tatively testing the value of an idea, and his mathematical 

 knowledge and power of close and accurate reasoning 

 enabled him to work out the quantitative results of a 

 difficult problem with great facility. His experimental 

 tank at Torquay, with all the delicate and interesting 

 contrivances in connection with it formeasuringand record- 

 ing the behaviour of models in rolling or their resistance 

 to motion through 'the water is a marvel of philosophical 

 arrangement and practical skill. Mr. Froude's published 

 papers include but a small portion, we believe, of his 

 work. It would be a worthy tribute to his memory, and 

 a great boon to science and to the shipping interests of 

 the country if the result of his researches could be 

 published in a complete form, and thus made readily 

 accessible. 



Mr. Froude had not much encouragement during the 

 early days of his investigations upon these subjects. The 

 first to appreciate their value were the late Prof. Rankine 

 and Mr. Crossland, one of the constructors of the Navy. 

 Mr. Crossland was one of the first to see that Mr. Froude, 

 in his first paper on the Rolling of Ships, read before the 

 Institution of Naval Architects in 1861, had indicated the 

 true laws of rolling motion, and in the following year he 

 contributed an original paper upon the same subject. 

 Mr. Reed was the first to apply the principles enunciated 

 by Mr. Froude to the construction of ships ; and did so 

 with great ability and success. Canon Moseley, Dr. 

 Woolley, and others did not see, however, for a consider- 

 able time, that Mr. Froude had made a great stride in 

 advance of previous knowledge, and had really discovered 

 the means that had long been wanted of arriving at a due 

 comprehension of the dynamical laws which govern a 

 ship's behaviour at sea. Mr. Froude's lucid and pains- 

 taking explanation of his theory and replies to the objec- 

 tion of Dr. Woolley and others produced in due time 

 their full effect, and in the course of a very few years all 

 who were capable of understanding the arguments upon 

 which the theory wag based were thoroughly convinced 

 that Mr. Froude's method and its results were sound, and 

 were such as could alone lead to improvement in this 

 branch of science. 



Mr. Froude's scientific reputation and the value of his 

 work now rest upon a solid foundation. His discoveries 

 have revolutionised whole theories of hydrodynamics, and 

 have stood the test of practical application. He has re- 

 ceived various honorary distinctions, such as the degree 

 of LL.D. from the University of Glasgow, and the Royal 

 Medal of the Royal Society; but his greatest distinction, 

 and that with which his name will always be associated, is 

 that, in an age when science is fashionable and many of 

 its professors look more to the show than the substance, 

 Mr. Froude devoted his energies to a long and unwearied 

 search after truth in a department of science that few 

 knew anything about, and that could have no interest for 

 the many, and he looked only to success for his reward. 

 Happily, in this sense he was bountifully rewarded, and 

 has left, both in the subject-matter of his researches and 

 the example he set in pursuing them, a legacy to those 

 who follow after which should stimulate them to work 

 with all their might, with the one object of endeavouring 

 also to attain unto truth and to be worthy of being 

 admitted within the veil of the temple of nature. 



KARL KOCH 



'T'HERE are very few even among professed botanists, 

 •*• who avail themselves to any thing like the extent 

 they might do of the teachings of a garden. And yet for 

 the study of the life-history of plants and for the due esti- 

 mation of their precise degree of relationship one to the 



other a garden offers in some ways — in many ways — un- 

 rivalled opportunities. 



Karl Koch, whose death we lately recorded, was one of 

 the few who had a right appreciation of the resources of a 

 garden and who knew how to turn them to account. His 

 tall, attenuated form and keen eye were to be observed at 

 most of the International Botanical and Horticultural 

 Congresses which have been held in various continental 

 cities and in London in 1866. Everywhere, by horticul- 

 turists as by botanists, his claims to high rank among his 

 fellows and his title to respect and even affection for his 

 personal qualities were acknowledged, so that it became 

 a pain to those who saw him recently to notice his gradu- 

 ally failing powers and to see how the old spirit was curbed 

 and checked by impaired physical health. 



Karl Koch was born in Weimar in June, i8og. In 

 that little capital he came in contact, as a youth, with 

 Goethe, and it was partly owing to his influence and 

 advice that Koch made his visits to the Caucasus and 

 various parts of Asia Minor. Shortly after he had com- 

 pleted his studies in medicine and natural history at Jena 

 and at Wiirzburg he set out on his travels, his special 

 objects being the investigation of the vegetation and an 

 inquiry into the original sources of our cultivated fruit- 

 trees. After two years' research he suffered so severely 

 from the effects of sunstroke on Mount Ararat that he 

 was obliged to return to Jena, but in 1843 he set out a 

 second time for the East. Of his first journey an account 

 was published in 1842, under the title of "Travels through 

 Russia," of his second, in 1845, under that of "Wan- 

 derings in the East." A general account of his travels 

 may be found in the Linnaa for 1848, in which publica- 

 tion also may be found catalogues and descriptive lists of 

 the plants collected by him, together with remarks on the 

 geographical distribution of plants in the Caucasus, &c. 

 On his return from this second expedition he became 

 assistant-director of the Botanic Garden at Berlin, secre- 

 tary of the Prussian Horticultural Society, and, a few 

 years later. Professor of Botany in the University. 



His position at Berlin gave him exceptional facilities 

 for studying cultivated plants, and, accordingly, much of 

 his botanical work consisted of monographs of Arads, 

 Bromeliads, Agaves, and other plants, necessarily im- 

 perfectly preserved in herbaria. Many such monographs 

 are scattered through the Wochenschrift of the Berlin 

 Horticultural Society, and which was for many years 

 edited by him. As a pomologist also he held no mean 

 position, but the most interesting and valuable part of his 

 labours, so far as this branch is concerned, are those 

 relating to the origin of cultivated fruit trees, a subject 

 intimately connected with the history and migrations of 

 our own race. 



His inagniim opus, however, is his "Dendrology" — a 

 scientific description of the trees and shrubs cultirated in 

 the forests and gardens of central Europe, a work for 

 which his travels had well prepared him. For the pur- 

 pose of compiling this volume Koch visited almost every 

 country in Europe. All the great nurseries of the Con- 

 tinent and of our country were also inspected by him 

 with the object of study or of securing specimens. 



Despite small defects of method Koch's descriptions 

 are excellent and characteristic, so much so, that it is a 

 great pity that his work has not been translated into 

 English. The technical details of his subject are enlivened 

 by short biographical notices of the botanists and horticul- 

 turists whose names are the most prominently associated 

 with the department of botany, of which his work treats. 

 The reader of these interesting notes to an otherwise neces- 

 sarily dry technical book will have no difficulty in under- 

 standing the estimation in which Koch' s popular lectures 

 on trees and on fruit trees in particular were held by the 

 Berlin public. 



In private life Koch was beloved for his uprightness, 

 loyalty, and warm-hearted devotion to his friends. 



