September 9 1 897] 



NATURE 



455 



and presenting a torn appearance in places. Faint nebulous 

 stars are immersed in the wave structure, and here and there i 

 the luminous material gives indications of condensation. Sur- | 

 rounding the nebula, and strewn over its surface are numerous 

 stars, which are, however, apparently not physically connected 

 with the general mass. Referring to the structure of the nebula 

 in relation to the methods of stellar evolution, Dr. Roberts 

 says : — " The general appearance of the nebula is that of pre- 

 cipitation of invisible matter — either gaseous or of dust particles 

 — which exists in space as clouds of vast extent. . . . We know 

 of no body whatever existing in space which has no motion of j 

 translation ; but whether this invisible matter is in motion or at 

 rest, it could be run into by another body that is in motion, with 

 the result that whirlpool motions would be set up that would 

 eventually develop into nebula; of various forms, such as those 

 which have already been, by photography, shown to exist. If, 

 on the other hand, the clouds themselves are in motion and 

 collide with each other, then vortical motion would be set up 

 over large areas, giving rise by progress of development to such 

 nebula; as are represented by the photograph. This nebula shows 

 signs of fission, and may pass in its process of development into 

 symmetrical nebulae and into stars, and again from stars into — 

 what ? " 



A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT IN LOBSTER- 

 REARING. 



A TTEMPTS to rear the larvse of the lobster in this country 

 •^"^ have never hitherto succeeded. Several years ago Captain 

 Dannevig reared some at Arendal, and published a description 

 of his results, but no other instance of success with the European 

 species has been recorded. In America the rearing of the 

 American species has been successfully accomplished at Wood's 

 Hole by Mr. F. H. Herrick, and a masterly description of the 

 stages of the development, with extremely fine illustrations, was 

 recently published by him as a number of the Fish Commission 

 Bulletin. At the establishment of the Marine Biological 

 Association at Plymouth attempts to rear lobster larvre have 

 been made, but never with success. In the tanks the larvae in- 

 variably died after a few days, and when the hulk of a super- 

 annuated fishing-vessel was fitted up, provided with a well to 

 which the water could have access, and moored in the Sound, 

 she unfortunately sank at her moorings with the thousands of 

 larva; which she contained. It is therefore a fact not without 

 interest and importance, that the difficult feat has been accom- 

 plished with some success during the present season at Fal- 

 mouth. During the last two or three years, experiments in 

 oyster and lobster culture have been carried on at that 

 place under the auspices of a committee of the Royal 

 Cornwall Polytechnic Society, the cost of the work being 

 defrayed from a fund collected by private subscription, supple- 

 mented by grants from the Technical Instruction Committee. 

 Until the commencement of this year the experiments were 

 directed by Mr. Rupert Vallentin, who designed a large floating 

 box 14 feet by 6 feet in area, by 3 feet in depth, provided with 

 windows covered with metal gratings, for the purpose of rearing 

 lobster larvoe. This box is moored in a corner of the docks where 

 the water seemed quite pure. Last year no success was obtained, 

 owing to an injury to the box. During the present season the ex- 

 periments have been under the direction of Mr. J. T. Cunningham, 

 the Lecturer on Fisheries for the county. Berried female lobsters 

 were first placed in the box on and about June 24, to the number 

 of three. Larva; were first seen on July 6, and were fed on 

 minced fish, but the number rapidly diminished. Seven more 

 berried females were put in on July 16, and since that time there 

 has always been a considerable number of larvie alive in the box; 

 some of the females have not yet hatched all their eggs (August 

 22). Since July 16 the only food supplied has been the crushed 

 and pounded flesh of the edible crab, the females of which 

 could be obtained regularly at small cost. It was found essential 

 to feed the larvae every day. As usual there was considerable 

 mortality, and the larva; showed their inveterate tendency to 

 cannibalism ; but a few specimens have passed through the 

 various stages of their metamorphosis. Students of Herrick's 

 memoir are aware that the final condition is reached, not con- 

 sidering certain minor features of little importance, at the fourth 

 stage. The first stage is characterised by the entire absence of 

 abdominal appendages, and the presence of the thoracic exopo- 



NO. 1454, VOL. 56] 



dites. After the second moult four pairs of abdominal pleopods 

 are developed, at the third the uropods on the sixth abdominal 

 somite are added, and at the fourth moult the exopodites are 

 lost, and the antennary flagella appear. A specimen in the 

 third stage was taken from the hatching-box at Falmouth on 

 August 12, and one in the fourth stage on August 22. 



The rearing of lobster larvae may always remain too difficult 

 and too expensive to be of any practical importance, and the 

 survival of a single specimen may appear to be a small success. 

 But there is every probability that other specimens will reach 

 the same or later stages in the course of the experiment, and, 

 considering the large amount of attention that the problem has 

 attracted, the result above described is worthy of record. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 

 SECTION K. 



Opening Address by Prof. H. Marshall Ward, Sc.D., 

 F.R.S., F.L.S., President of the Section. 



The competent historian of our branch of science will have 

 no lack of materials when he comes to review the progress of 

 botany during the latter half of the Victorian reign. The task 

 of doing justice to the work in phanerogamic botany alone, 

 under the leadership of men like Hooker, Asa Gray, Mueller, 

 Engler, Warming, and the army of systematists so busily shifting 

 the frontiers of the various natural groups of flowering plants, 

 will need able hands for satisfactory treatment. A mere sketch 

 of the influence of Kew, the principal centre of systematic 

 botany, and of the active contingents of Indian and colonial 

 botanists working under its inspiration, will alone require an im- 

 portant chapter, and it will need full knowledge and a wide 

 vision to avoid inadequacy of treatment of its powerful stimulus 

 on all departments of post-Darwinian botany. The "Genera 

 Plantarum," the " British Flora," the " Flora of India," suffice 

 to remind us of the prestige of England in systematic botany, 

 and the influence of the large and growing library of local and 

 colonial floras we owe to the labours of Bentham, Trimen, 

 Clarke, Oliver, Baker, Hemsley, Brandis, King, Gamble, 

 Balfour, and the present Director of Kew, is more than merely 

 imperial. 



The progress in Europe and America of the other departments 

 of botany has been no less remarkable, and indeed histology 

 and anatomy, comparative morphology, and the physiology and 

 pathology of plants have perhaps advanced even more rapidly, 

 because the ground was newer. In England the work done at 

 Cambridge, South Kensington and elsewhere, and the publica- 

 tions in the "Annals of Botany" and other journals sufficiently 

 bear witness to this. A consequence has been the specialisation 

 which must soon be openly recognised — as it already is tacitly — 

 in botany as in zoological and other branches of science. 



No note has been more clearly sounded than this during the 

 past twenty-five years, as is evident to all who have seen the 

 origin, rise, and progress of our modern laboratories, special 

 journals, and even the gradual subdivisions of this Association. 

 We may deplore this, as some deplore the departure of the days 

 when a naturalist was expected to teach geology, zoology, and 

 botany as a matter of course ; but the inevitable must come. 

 Already the establishment of bacteriological laboratories and a 

 huge special literature, of zymo-technical laboratories and 

 courses on the study of yeasts and mould fungi, of agricultural 

 stations, forestry and dairy schools, and so on— all these are 

 signs of the inexorable results of progress. 



There are disadvantages, as the various Centralbldtter and 

 special journals show ; for hurried work and feverish contentions 

 for priority are apt to accompany these subdivisions of labour ; 

 and those of us who are most intimately concerned with the 

 teaching of botany will do well to take heed of these signs of 

 our times, and distinguish between the healthy specialisation in- 

 evitably due to the sheer weight and magnitude of our subject, 

 and that incident on other movements and arising from other 

 causes. The teaching and training in a university or school 

 need not be narrow because its research-laboratories are famous 

 for special work. 



One powerful cause of modern specialisation is utility. The 

 development of industries like brewing, dyeing, forestry, agri- 



