September 27, 1900] 



NA TURE 



543 



with the adaptations of water-plants (hydrophytes) on the one 

 hand, and of desert-plants (xerophytes) on the other ; with the 

 adaptations of shade-plants and of those growing in full sun, 

 especially as regards the protection of the chlorophyll. We 

 have learned a great deal as to the relations of plants to each 

 other, such as the peculiarities of parasites, epiphytes and 

 climbing plants, and as to those singular symbioses (Mycorhiza) 

 of the higher plants with Fungi which have been found to be 

 characteristic of saprophytes. Then, again, as to the relations 

 between plants and animals : the adaptation of flowers to attract 

 the visits of insects, first discovered by Sprengel (1793), has 

 been widely studied ; the protection of the plant against the 

 attacks of animals, by means of thorns and spines on the surface, 

 as also by the formation in its tissues of poisonous or distasteful 

 substances, and even by the hiring of an army of mercenaries in 

 the form of ants, has been elucidated ; and finally those cases in 

 which the plant turns the tables upon the animal, and captures 

 and digests him, are now fully understood. 



Conclusion. 

 Imperfect as is the sketch which I have now completed, it 

 will, I think, suffice to show how remarkable has been the 

 progress of the science during the nineteenth century, more par- 

 ticularly the latter part of it, and how multifarious are the 

 directions in which it has developed. In fact Botany can no 

 longer be regarded as a single science ; it has grown and 

 branched into a congeries of sciences. And as we botanists 

 regard with complacency the flourishing condition of the science 

 whose servants we are, let us not forget, on the one hand, to do 

 honour to those whose life work it was to make the way straight 

 for us, and whose conquests have become our peaceful posses- 

 sion ; nor, on the other, that it lies with us so to carry on 

 the good work that when this Section meets a hundred years 

 hence it may be found that the achievements of the twentieth 

 century do not lag behind those of the nineteenth. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



As was explained at length in our issue of March 22, in ac- 

 cordance with the new statutes of the University of London, a 

 reconstituted Senate is to be elected shortly. The new Senate 

 will be composed of the Chancellor, the Chairman of Convoca- 

 tion and fifty-four Senators, of whom sixteen are to be elected 

 by Convocation. These sixteen members of the Senate will have, 

 it would appear from the statutes, two distinct functions. They 

 will, in addition to their general duties as senators, be required 

 to form a special council for external students. This council, 

 which is to consist of twenty-eight members of the Senate, will 

 include the chancellor, the vice-chancellor, the chairman of Con- 

 vocation, the sixteen senators elected by Convocation, and nine 

 other members of the Senate elected by the Senate. Members 

 of Convocation will, in a few days, proceed to choose their sixteen 

 representatives ; and, not unnaturally, there is considerable 

 diversity of opinion as to the suitability of the nominated can- 

 didates. Two rival associations have sprung up. One body of 

 graduates insists that the duties to be performed upon the 

 ouncil for external students should be considered of paramount 

 importance in electing senators ; the other, that their responsi- 

 bilities as members of the Senate should be kept continually in 

 view, because the work of the new University as a whole, but 

 more especially the development of its teaching facilities, is of 

 the most pressing nature. While admitting the necessity of 

 safe-guarding the interests of the external student, and of en- 

 suring the high value of the degrees of the University, it is 

 desirable that every possible means of improving the higher 

 education of London should receive primary consideration. It 

 would be nothing less than a calamity were Convocation to elect 

 sixteen irreconcilables with no ideas outside that of introducing 

 the peculiar, though somewhat circumscribed, needs of the ex- 

 ternal student into all deliberations of the Senate. It is there- 

 fore to be hoped that the common-sense which attended the 

 election of their representative in Parliament will characterise 

 the selection of the sixteen senators chosen by Convocation. It 

 is easily possible to find members of the University who, while 

 fully aware of the needs, and in sympathy with the aims of the 

 external student, have also broad views as to the work of a great 

 teaching University. 



NO. 161 3, VOL. 



62] 



Dr. a. p. Laurie, lecturer in physics and chemistry at St. 

 Mary's Hospital Medical School, has been appointed principal 

 of the Heriot Watt College, Edinburgh. 



Dr. Spenxer W. Richardson, lecturer on physics at the 

 University College, Nottingham, has been appointed principal 

 and professor of physics at the Hartley College, Southampton. 



The Birkbeck Institution, London, which has now completed 

 seventy-seven years of educational work in the metropolis, com- 

 mences its new session on Monday, October i. The Institution 

 has had many additions to its appliances in recent years, and the 

 physical, chemical and metallurgical laboratories are now very 

 thoroughly equipped. The day classes provide courses in 

 chemistry, biology, physics and mathematics for the science 

 degrees of London University. During the recess considerable 

 additions and improvements have been made by the aid of a 

 gift of 2000 guineas from Mr. F. Ravenscroft, to commemorate 

 his completion of a membership of fifty years. 



Addresses will be given at the opening of many of the 

 metropolitan and provincial medical schools at the beginning of 

 October. At Middlesex Hospital on October i, Dr. T. Clifford 

 Allbutt, F.R.S., will distribute the prizes gained during the 

 previous year and deliver an address. At St. George's 

 Hospital the introductory address will be delivered by Dr. 

 F/ancis G. Penrose. At University College the session of the 

 faculty of medicine will be opened by Prof. G. Vivian Poore ; 

 the session of the faculty of arts and laws, and of science, will 

 be opened with an address by Prof. F. W. Oliver on October 2. 

 At St. Mary's Hospital the introductory address will be given 

 by Mr. H. S. Collier. At St. Thomas's Hospital the session 

 will open on Tuesday, October 2, when the prizes will be dis- 

 tributed by Sir William MacCormac. At the opening of the 

 session at Charing Cross Hospital on October 2, Lord Lister 

 will deliver the third biennial Huxley Lecture. The London 

 School of Tropical Medicine will open on October i, and 

 the introductory address will be delivered by Sir William 

 MacGregor, K.C.M.G., C.B., on Wednesday, October 3. At 

 the London School of Medicine for Women the introductory 

 address will be given on October i by Miss Aldrich Blake, M.S. , 

 M.D., after which the prizes for the past year will be distributed. 

 At the Royal Veterinary College the introductory address will 

 be delivered by Prof. McFadyean. The winter session at the 

 University of Birmingham will begin on October i with an 

 address by Prof. B. C. A. Windle. At University College of 

 South Wales and Monmouthshire, Cardiff, the address will be 

 delivered on October i by Sir John Williams. At University 

 College, Liverpool, the Bishop of Liverpool will deliver an 

 address on October 13 and distribute the prizes. 



A summary of the scheme of work carried on by the Essex 

 Technical Instruction Committee for the promotion of interest 

 in the science of agriculture and other branches of knowledge 

 bearing upon rural industries, has been prepared by Messrs. 

 T. S. Dymond and J. H. Nicholas. The work is in every 

 respect satisfactory, and should do much to broaden the views of 

 the practical farmers of the county as to the value of agricul- 

 tural education and experiment. Every year an educational 

 excursion extending over several days is organised, the one this 

 year being to Denmark to study dairy farms and dairying, high 

 school and agricultural education, co-operation and organisation 

 of agricultural industry there. Field experiments are carried 

 out by arrangement with farmers distributed in all parts of the 

 county, the advantage being that as demonstrations of the effect 

 of manures, &c., they receive wider attention, and also that the 

 experiments can be made on each of the different classes of land 

 occurring in the county. Meetings of farmers are held in the 

 experimental fields in each district at the season most suitable 

 for studying the results of the experiments. The County 

 Technical Laboratories at Chelmsford are now recognised as 

 a centre from which information upon agricultural matters can 

 be obtained. The advice of the staff" is frequently sought on 

 insect and fungoid pests, on difficulties met with in the dairy, 

 &c., and their opinion asked on the value of foods and of 

 fertilisers, and the best manurial treatment of land. As occasion 

 arises, inquiries are undertaken on matters of agricultural 

 importance, such as the chemical and physical effect of the salt 

 water inundation upon agricultural land on the coast of Essex, 

 and the best method for its amelioration. The agricultural 

 work of the Essex Technical Instruction Committee is thus of 

 the same character as that carried on by the Government 



