176 



NATURE 



[December 20, 1900 



and a Yeso Ainu, which the author considers afford 

 important evidence in favour of the Caucasian affinities 

 of the former race. Mr. Wallace, in opposition to the 

 views of the late Sir William Flower, likewise advo- 

 cates a Caucasian descent for the brown Polynesians. 

 The use of the bow arid arrow by the Papuans, and not 

 by either the Australians or the Polynesians, is, he 

 remarks, a notable ethnical fact.' It clearly, indeed, 

 serves to differentiate the Aiistraliaris from the Papuans 

 and other Melanesiaris ; but then, on the other hand, it 

 might also be used as an argument that the Polynesians 

 are related to the Malays, who likewise never use the 

 weapon in question. It may be remarked as somewhat 

 strange that, when the authoralludes to thepossession of the 

 boomerang by races other than the Australians, he omits 

 to mention its use by certain Indian jungle tribes. 



With one article on the problem of instinct, and a 

 second on human selection, the latter worthy the best 

 attention of those interested in the well being and im- 

 provement (both physically and morally) of the human 

 race, the first of these two most interesting volumes is 

 brought to close. 



In the second volume our remarks, as already said, 

 will be restricted to the first two articles, one of which 

 deals with how an ideal zoological museum should be 

 constructed and arranged in the best manner for educat- 

 ing the public, while the second discusses how near an 

 approach to this ideal is made by the museums of the 

 United States. The author seems to be clearly of 

 opinion that a most important, if not, indeed, the prime 

 function of a museum should be as an educating 

 mediiim. In his rnain ideas he is in accord with the 

 opinions of the late Sir William Flower, and he points 

 out that a perfect museum ought to embrace every- 

 thing from the lowest worm to the highest product of 

 human art and skill. He also advocates the exhibition 

 of a comparatively limited number of specimens (which 

 should be the best that money can obtain), in order not 

 to confuse by multitude, and also that these should have 

 ample space. The allotment of separate chambers to 

 particular groups is likewise made a point, because, as 

 he urges, a long gallery only serves to distract the atten- 

 tion of the visitor from the objects immediately before 

 him to those ahead, and thus inevitably leads to hurry 

 and an imperfect study. Lastly, but not least in import- 

 ance. Dr. Wallace advocates the arrangement of zoo- 

 logical collections according to local faunas, instead of 

 according to the affinities of the animals themselves. 



Whether or np this faunistic arrangement should be 

 adopted for the main exhibited series in a museum may 

 be an open question ; but there can be no question at 

 all that such an arrangement should be displayed in 

 every national museum. The American Museum of 

 Natural History shows in one case the animals living 

 within a fifty-mile radius of New York, and in a second 

 the characteristic members of the European fauna ; and 

 nothing of this nature can be of higher educational 

 value. With regard to limiting the number of specimens 

 exhibited, a difficulty occurs, since a museum — at any rate 

 in England — has at least two distinct classes of visitors 

 for whom to cater. For the ordinary lover of natural 

 history, as well as for the general zoological student, to 

 say nothing of " the man in the street," a small number 

 NO. 1625, VOL. 63] 



of specific representatives of various groups is not only 

 sufficient, but forms the best kind of exhibit he can be 

 shown. On the other hand, although the working zoolo- 

 gist will find what he requires in the study series, the 

 sportsman — and in Britain his name is legion — expects to 

 find exhibited every species and race of furred and 

 feathered game he may encounter in the course of his 

 wanderings. To find a via media out of this difficulty is a 

 problem which will probably long continue to vex the mind 

 of the museum curator ; but, like other difficulties, it will 

 one day have to be faced and conquered. 



Our best wish to the many readers whom Dr. Wallace's 

 two volumes will undoubtedly attract is that they may 

 derive from their perusal an amount of interest and in- 

 struction equal to that which has accrued to the present 

 reviewer in the accompHshment of his task. 



R. L. 



BRITISH BRAMBLES. 

 Handbook of British Rubi. By William Moyle Rogers, 

 F.L.S. Pp. xiv -V III. (London: Duckworth and 

 Co., 1900). 



MR. ROGERS' " Handbook of British Rubi" is not 

 a work likely to excite a wide interest. As the 

 offering to his fellow " batologists " of " a diligent student 

 of British brambles for nearly a quarter of a century," it 

 appeals to a restricted circle. No general worker in the 

 field of systematic botany can hope to master the fine 

 distinctions which discriminate the great majority of the 

 so-called species ; in fact, the general systematist will see 

 at once that the batologist and he are widely at variance 

 as to the hmitation of species, and that for purposes 

 of comparison with those o/" other genera and of a 

 comparative study of floras the * species ' of British 

 Rubi are useless. Generally speaking a 'species' is to 

 some extent a personal matter, sometimes varying con- 

 siderably in different conditions of one and the same 

 person ; but the entities recognised by several workers in 

 one group usually bear an appreciable relation to each 

 other and to those of other groups. It is not too much 

 to say that there is no comparison whatever between 

 the species of the batologist and the species of the 

 botanist. 



In Sir Joseph Hooker's " Student's Flora," which we 

 may regard as the expression of the views on the British 

 flora of our greatest living systematist, four species of 

 Rubus are recognised, namely, R. Chamaeniorus (the 

 cloudberry), R. saxatilis, a small low-growing, sub- 

 alpine plant rare in the south and east of England ; R, 

 Idaeus (the raspberry), and R. frulicosus (the blackberry 

 or bramble) ; under the last-named twenty-two forms or 

 subspecies are enumerated. Bentham, in his " Hand- 

 book of the British Flora," has five species, R. caesius 

 (the dewberry) ranking as a species, whereas in the 

 Student's Flora it is regarded as a subspecies of R. 

 fruticosus. Babingtoh, whose manual is generally re- 

 cognised as the best critical account of our flora, and 

 who paid some attention to the Rubi^ makes forty-eight 

 species by raising to specific rank a number of forms of 

 R. fruticosus. Mr. Rogers, by a further elaboration of 

 the same species, admits one hundred and three, many 

 of which are subdivided into subspecies or varieties.. 



