December ii, 1919] 



NATURE 



conditions the quality inherent in some varieties to 

 resist disease may be utilised to great advantage. 

 The national importance of such work is impressed 

 upon us by the enormous losses sustained every year 

 bv rust in wheat, mould in hops, and the widespread 

 disease of potatoes. One of the most striking instances 

 in recent times was the destruction of the valuable 

 coffee plantations in Ceylon. The industry, an excep- 

 tionallv valuable one, was wiped out in a com- 

 parativelv few years by the coffee-leaf disease {Heiuileia 

 vastatrix). In the light of our present knowledge it 

 is not improbable that this disease may have been 

 checked bv seed selection or by raising an immune race 

 of plants ; or, more probably, as suggested by .\rm- 

 strong, bv regulating the use of essentially nitrogenous 

 manures, which are known in some cases to intensify 

 the attacks of fungoid jjests, and substituting the use 

 of phosphates. .As illustrating the occurrence of an 

 incidental result arising from a purely scientific in- 

 vestigation, mention may be made of the discovery 

 of a remarkablv tall strain of flax at the John Innes 

 Institution. This, if capable of being established on 

 pure lines, mav prove of economic value. It is a 

 hopeful sign that the appreciation of the work done 

 at this institution, under the stimulating energy of 

 Bateson, is increasing day by day. We may mention 

 the great success which is attending the establish- 

 ment of a school of technical education and research 

 bv the Roval Horticultural Society at Wisley. This 

 is maintained b\ liberal funds, and by means of 

 its well-equipped laboratories and extensive trial 

 grounds it offers unique facilities for solving problems 

 of great value as affecting the future of British horti- 

 culture. In sympathy with the work at Wisley, 

 private firms are also setting up laboratories of their 

 own and employing men of high standing so that a 

 just balance mav be maintained between science and 

 practice. The progress made in the elucidation of 

 problems in tropical plant pathology shows the neces- 

 sity not only for well-trained and experienced myco- 

 logists and entomologists, but also for the correlation 

 and combination of knowledge gained in their several 

 lines of study. It is suggested that research work 

 should be organised on the broadest possible lines, and 

 combine the biological services of the whole P'mpire. 

 ^^'(■ have ;i first step in this direction in th^ Imperial 

 Bureau of Entomology, with its headquarters at the 

 British Museum. Those acquainted with the efficient 

 work done bv this bureau and the excellent publica- 

 tions issued by it will very heartilv welcome the estab- 

 lishment of the proposed Imperial Bureau of Myco- 

 logv to carrv on work on similar lines. 



In this brief review 1 have endeavoured, however 

 imperfectly, to place on record some of the activities 

 that have taken place in the domain of botany in 

 recent years. It has only been possible to select a 

 few of the most striking incidents where progress has 

 been made. This has been done in the hope of 

 arousing wider interest in work of prime importance 

 as affecting the interests of the home country and the 

 Empire. IJotanv in its widest. aspects affects so largely 

 the welfare of I he huTnan race that it is impossible to 

 slacken our efforts. .Advance has necessarily been 

 slow, hut the creative impulse of science cannot fail 

 to bring in a large harvest of results. This may be 

 possible bv encouraging individual efforts, by organis- 

 ing active co-opi-ration. and b\ associating with us 

 men who are practically grappling with difficulties 

 that seem almost impossible to solve. I have at- 

 tempted to show in what vast fields of enterprise 

 botanical science has already rendered signal service. 

 As regards the future, if we enlist the l)est intellects, 

 imbued with the true spirit of progressive research, 

 we shall ensure a continuance of discoveries that have 

 proved so effectual. We must also call to our assist- 

 \0. 2615, VOT.. TO4] 



ance some of that wonderful energy developed during 

 the war and divert it to the great work before us. 



Certainly one of the outstanding features that 

 emerge from a record of botanical research during the 

 last decade or two is the prominent position now 

 occupied by plant-breeding on Mendelian lines. In 

 proof of this we have the numerous well-equipped 

 plant-breeding institutes established and maintained 

 bv Government and private funds. Plant-breeding is 

 now in the forefront in relation to the improvement 

 of crops, and the value of it is officially acknowledged 

 as "a vital element in the national policy." According 

 to the Secretary of the Board of .Agriculture, what we 

 want '"are new races of plants adapted to intensive 

 cultivatien," and he adds : " It is my deliberate opinion 

 that an increase in the production of our land is much 

 more easily attainable in that direction than in any 

 other." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — On Tuesday, December 2, in the hall 

 of Trinity College, a lecture open to the University 

 was given by Prof. Eddington on the theory of 

 relativity. .Apart from the interest of the lecture, 

 which attempted — sometimes lightly and sometimes 

 ahnost dramatically — to present a popular account of 

 the subject, the most striking thing about it was the 

 enormous attendance. Fifteen minutes before the 

 lecture began there was a queue half-way across the 

 Cireat Court of men anxious to obtain admittance, 

 and during the lecture the hall was entirely filled 

 with dons and students listening breathlessly to hear 

 an intelligible account, if one could be given, of the 

 new theory. The keen interest was due, no doubt, 

 largely to curiosity stimulated by the newspaper 

 accounts of the subject, but also partly to the feeling, 

 to which at last some hope of satisfaction can be 

 given, that a further great unifying principle is 

 needed in natural philosophy. Whatever be the 

 reason, however, the size and appreciation of the 

 audience were no less extraordinary than the subject 

 of the lecture and the brilliance of its exposition. 



Mrs. Osborn, the wife of the president of 

 the .American .Museum of Natural History, has 

 presented a striking portrait of her husband to the 

 Sedgwick Museum. It is proposed to hang this por- 

 trait of an old student of Cambridge and an honorary 

 doctor of science of the Iniversity amongst the fossil 

 mammals, which have been the subject of his life's 

 work, near the portraits of Darwin and Huxley. 

 The portrait, which is recognised by friends in ("am- 

 bridge as a remarkablv good likeness, is inscribed as 

 follows :—'' Henry Fairfield Osborn, I.L.D., Sc.D. 

 Camb., a student at Cambridge in iSyq, contributor 

 to Comparative .\natomy, Palaontology, Biology, 

 President of the .American Museum of >s'atural His- 

 tory. By Orlando Rouland, New York, tgiq." 



Liverpool. — The council has appointed Prof. E. R. 

 Dewsnup, professor of railway administration in the 

 I'niversitv of Illinois, to the chair of comm"rce, 

 recently endowed bv the trustees of the late Mrs. 

 .\. W.' ("haddock. 



Mr. .\. CoNNRi.i. has been appointed to succeed 

 Prof. .S. White in the professorship of surgery in the 

 L'niversity of Sheffield. 



Capt. L. L. Bl'rchn'ai.i., scholar of Christ Church, 

 Oxford, has been appointed lecturer in mathematics 

 in the tiniversity of Durham. 



Dr. J. Cruicksmank, pathologist to the Crichton 

 Roval Institution, Dumfries, has been appointed 



