354 



NATURE 



[November 26, 1914 



BOTANY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



'pHE botanical benefits derivable from a visit to 

 ■'• Australia began to manifest themselves as soon 

 as we left the shores of England. Taking advantage 

 of the facilities offered by the Blue Funnel Line, it 

 was possible, as a member of the advance party on 

 board the Ascanius, to make collections of the plank- 

 ton daily throughout the voyage from England to 

 Australia, by the Cape. 



The writer made qualitative collections with the 

 help of apparatus provided by Prof. Herdman, whose 

 quantitative work went on in spite of the rough 

 weather in the "roaring forties" which laid Dr. 

 Ostenfeld low with a comminuted left patella, to the 

 great regret of all, and especially of the botanists 

 whose invited guest he was. His absence from the 

 field and from the meeting in Australia was felt 

 throughout our visit. 



A call at Las Palmas and at Cape Town, of a few 

 hours' duration only, in each case, allowed us to see 

 something of the flora of the Canaries and of Cape 

 Colony respectively. The forests of the silver-leaf 

 tree — Leucadendron argenteum — covering the slopes 

 of Table Mountain, were a striking feature in the 

 fine, drive of fifty miles on the coast road at the Cape. 

 The time spent in responding, on our first day out, 

 to the S.O.S. signal of the Gothland, on the Bishop 

 Rock in the Scilly Isles, could not be made up owing 

 to rough weather east of the Cape, so that we missed 

 the garden-party of 2500 invited by the Governor to 

 meet us at Perth, and we arrived only just in time 

 for the delivery of Prof. Herdman 's lecture on "Why 

 We Study the Ocean." 



Elaborate preparations had been made to enable 

 us, by train and motor-car, to see something of the 

 types of flora in different parts of West Australia 

 under the able, constant, and ideal guidance of Mr. 

 C. Andrews. Botanists owe him a deep debt of 

 gratitude for placing his thorough knowledge of the 

 flora, as well as his time, so readily at the disposal 

 of the party. Mr. Andrews added to our obligations 

 by writing a well-illustrated article on the flora of 

 West Australia for the Handbook of the State, of 

 which each member received a copy. With such a 

 rich flora (4000 species), of which two-thirds is 

 endemic, a week was tantalisingly little, and we could 

 do little more than note, and collect for subsequent 

 study, specimens of the striking xerophilous, endemic 

 flora made famous by the researches of Robert 

 Brown, J. D. Hooker, Diels, and others. The Pro- 

 teaceae, Myrtaceae, Leguminosae, and Rutaceae are 

 orders which stand out by their frequenc}^ and ecolo- 

 gical adaptations. The flora round King George's 

 Sound at Albany proved a great treat. Cephalotiis 

 follicularis and Phylloglossiiin drummondii (a club- 

 moss most botanists have never seen living), in plenty, 

 Boronia megastigma as abundant as a meadow- 

 grass, Xanthorrcea and Kingia in various stages of 

 development, Macrozamia fraseri, Eucalyptus of 

 many kinds and limitless in quantity, must sufifice to 

 suggest the richness of the botanical features enjoyed. 



It was fortunate in one sense that we were, we learnt, 

 six weeks too soon for the blaze of colour and variety 

 of form characteristic of the early summer of West 

 Australia. It is not too much to say that nothing 

 in the whole meeting exceeded the hospitable wel- 

 come and generous excursion arrangements made by 

 the Government and people of this State. We re- 

 turned from the scrub to find the war clouds bursting 

 and to see in Perth a fine illustration of patriotic 

 feeling indicative of the unity of the British Empire. 



There was so much of interest on every side that 

 earlv in our visit it was realised it would be wise 



NO. 2352, VOL. 94.] 



to economise our plates by systcmatising the photo- 

 graphic work of the party. Dr. Holt, the Recorder of 

 chemistry, accordingly suggested a selective distribu- 

 tion of the work, with a subsequent exchange of prini>. 

 This idea was extended by the writer to cover the work 

 of the diff^erent sections throughout the visit to Aus- 

 tralia. A note was inserted in the Journal inviting 

 photographing members to co-operate ; and many 

 promised their support. 



The botanists were particularly fortunate in finding 

 at all the centres visited preparations made for excur- 

 sions to districts characteristic of the local flora. To 

 Prof, and Mrs. Osborn we owe a deep debt of grati- 

 tude for their help and hospitality at Adelaide. The 

 visits to the mangrove swamp (Avicennia), at the 

 Grange (Henley Beach), to Mt. Lofty Range, and 

 through the Mallee scrub to Mannum, are three 

 excursions not likely to be soon forgotten, made 

 more instructive by the maps and notes prepared by 

 Prof. Osborn. 



It was not until we reached Melbourne that the 

 Botanical Section (K) came officially into existence. 

 So far we had been fully occupied in the field. Here, 

 as later at Sydney, it was difficult to find time for 

 the many v'aluable contributions offered. Miss E. R. 

 Saunders, a vice-president of the section, gave a 

 lecture on a common garden plant, its histor}- and 

 behaviour, illustrated by lantern-slides. This was 

 followed by a well-illustrated account by Dr. C. J. 

 Bond on sex dimorphism in some abnormal begonia 

 flowers. Prof. A. J. Ewart and Miss O. B. Davies 

 described the flora of the Northern Territory, Mr. 

 C. S. Sutton that of Melbourne, while Mr. Hiern 

 contributed a paper on the Australian Ebenaceae. 

 Contributions were also made by Prof. F. O. Bower, 

 the president of the section (" Modern Derivatives of 

 the Matonioid Ferns "), by Prof. Ewart (" Oxidase 

 Enzymes"), by Miss E. N. Thomas and Miss A. J. 

 Davey ("The Seedling Anatomy of certain Pseudo- 

 Monocotyledons"), Dr. E. N. Berridge ("Casu- 

 arina "), Miss Rees ("Fossil Fruits"). Prof. Gunner 

 Andersson, of Stockholm, suggested a field of work 

 for Australia in his account of the climate in 

 northern temperate and arctic zones during the 

 latest Pleistocene age. Dr. Ostenfeld's paper on 

 the geographical distribution of the sea-grasses, in 

 which he directed attention to the incompleteness of 

 the knowledge of Australian forms, was communi- 

 cated by Dr. Rendle, who initiated a joint discussion 

 with Section D (Zoology) on the origin of species. 

 This formed one of the most interesting features of 

 the Melbourne meeting, and took place before a 

 crowded audience. A general report will follow. 



Prof. Seward's lecture on the fossil plants discovered 

 by Capt. Scott's last expedition in the xA.ntarctic 

 regions aroused much interest. Miss Lorrain Smith 

 described the relationship of fungus and alga in the 

 lichen thallus, and concluded that the relationship is 

 one of nutrition. The fungus is certainly dependent 

 on the alga, but the alga is dependent on the fungus 

 for its nitrogen and partly for its carbohydrates. The 

 botanical excursions at Melbourne proved highly 

 attractive. The outstanding one, for elaborateness 

 of preparation, was that to the National Park, a great 

 national reserve of 150,000 acres, reached by rail, 

 boat, and horseback from Melbourne. To Prof. Ewart 

 and his assistant, Mr. O'Brien, to Mr. Kershaw, 

 curator of the museum, Mr. Catani, and Mr. Audass, 

 botanists owe many thanks for the success of the 

 Melbourne portion of the Australian visit. 



The presidential address, already reprinted in 

 Nature, was reserved for Sydney. This was followed 

 by a series of papers on Eucalyptus, contributed by 

 Messrs. J. H. Maiden, R. T. Baker and H. E. Smith, 



