NA rURE 



[May 7, 1891 



remarkable discoveries in science during the last decade. 

 This object he attains. His style is clear and straight- 

 forward, and, without being "sensational," he knows how 

 to present facts and principles in a way that is likely to 

 arrest attention and awaken curiosity. Among the sub- 

 jects dealt with are the formation of dew, the colour of 

 water, dust and fogs, lightning, sun-spots, after-glows, 

 the enumeration of organisms in air, micro-organisms 

 in water, and characteristics of deep-sea fishes. The first 

 edition was issued about two years ago. In the present 

 edition the author has added a few notes to bring the 

 facts up to date. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. N,ilher can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part ^Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonyiitous communications.'] 



County Councils and Technical Education. 

 Your article of April 30 (vol. xliii. p. 602) is scarcely fair to 

 the London County Council. 



When you allege that the Council *' have ^grabbed' a fund, 

 ear-marked for educational purposes," you assume the question 

 at issue. The only way in which the fund in question is "ear- 

 marked " for educational purposes is by a clause in the Act 

 which gives each Council a discretionary power to apply the 

 fund either to those purposes or to other purposes, as they 

 choose. 



London, which, as proved hy Mr. Goschen, is exceptionally 

 rated, has come badly off in the general scramble for Imperial 

 doles which are devoted to the alleviation of rates ; and if the 

 representatives of London ratepayers treat this additional dole 

 out of the beer and spirit duties as a make-up fur their com- 

 paratively small share of other doles, they are doing not only 

 what the law allows, but what equity justifies. 



I believe, however, that amongst those who voted against the 

 plan proposed by the Committee of the Council there are many 

 who would not be unwilling to see the money devoted to educa- 

 tion, if any well-considered and reasonable plan were proposed 

 for this purpose. 



But there are several questions which have to be answered 

 before this can be done properly. 



What do the promoters of "technical education " mean by 

 that term ? It is not to be the teaching of the elementary 

 school ; it is r,ot to be the training of the workshop ; but be- 

 tween these two extremes all is uncertain. The counties say, 

 " instruction in the elements of farming " ; the London County 

 Council Committee says, "Polytechnics"; the statute says, 

 "whatever the authorities at South Kensington define it to be." 

 Educational reformers geneially, so far as I can judge, mean by 

 it all or any forms of secondary education, i.e. of the education 

 which carries foiwaid the work of the elementary school, and 

 brings the pupil nearer to the business of life. But we need to 

 be a cood deal more precise before we establish a precedent and 

 a practice. 



Then, again, is it wise for the London County Council, which 

 has work enough on its hands in looking after the physical con- 

 dition of this great City, to take upon itself a task for which it is 

 in no way fitted, and which was not contemplated when it was 

 elected? Is it wise to muddle administration by first intrusting 

 one part of education to one elective body — viz. the School 

 Board — and then intrusting another part of it to a different 

 elective body chosen for a different purpose ? 



AVhilst such questions as these remain unanswered, the 

 London Council exercises a wise discretion in not committing 

 itself to any scheme for appropriating this fund, the offspring of 

 a legislative fluke, to any special and permanent object. 



You speak, as persons in general speak, of the London County 

 Council as one amongst other County Councils. The name 

 County Council is a misnomer which leads to constant errors. 

 The London County Council has little or nothing in common 

 with the bodies which have taken the place of the old magistracy 

 in most districts. It is really the chief Town Council of the 

 largest city or aggregation of cities in the world, and the rules 

 and reasoning which, under the ill-drawn and ill-digested Local 

 Government Act, are applied to both, are ofttn singulaily in- 



NO. I 123, VOL. 44] 



appropriate. Calling London a county is the parent of endless- 

 mistakes ; and to abuse the London Council because it is not 

 acting in the same way as the Councils of counties seem disposed 

 to act is no less confused than unfair. T. H. Farrer. 



May 5. 



The Alpine Flora. 



I HAD not intended to continue the discussion on this subject,, 

 but Prof, Henslow's last letter calls for a few remarks. My 

 argument, summed up, is as follows : — 



(i) Alpine plants as a class show certain characters, e.g. 

 dwarfing and compact growth. 



(2) These characters are advantageous to them, or are cor- 

 related with such as are advantageous. 



(3) Although dwarfing, &c., may be produced as the_ direct 

 result of environment (^.^. poor soil), there is normal variability 

 in respect to size, time of maturing, &c. 



(4) When in cultivation those plants are selected which show 

 a natural tendency to dwarfing, &c., it is found that the charac- 

 ter is inherited ; and in this way, dwarfed, early-maturing, and 

 other peculiar races can be produced. 



(5) On the other hand, when plants have been dwarfed from 

 growing in poor soil, or otherwise as the result of environment 

 acting directly upon them, there appears to be no evidence to 

 show that the peculiarity is inherited. _ _ 



(6) Supposing natural selection to be the only factor, it is 

 fully competent, working on the normal variability, to produce 

 the results observed, so far as they are hereditary. At least, so 

 it seems to me. 



To illustrate the point, take Mertensia agaiii. In Colorado, 

 M. sibirica grows in ravines, &c., by creeks ; it could not pos- 

 sibly grow in the same way above timber-line, with its ta.ll 

 stems and abundant foliage. Yet it gains much advantage in 

 the creek- bottoms from its height and rank growth ; if it were 

 a dwarf, it would be almost or altogether smothered. Above 

 timber-line, on the Sangre de Cristo Range, I found the dwarf 

 species, M. lanceolata. Thus we have two species frequenting 

 different situations in the same district : each is fitted for its sta- 

 tion ; either, removed to the station of the other, could not exist. 

 In Arctic regions, M. sibirica has produced a dwarf variety called 

 dr.umnwjidii, which is, I suppose, a first step towards the estab- 

 lishment of a dwarf Arctic species. 



Prof Henslow asks why, if natural selection eliminates tall 

 plants on Alpine summits, it does not also do so lower down? 

 I am not at all clear that it does not, in some cases. For 

 example, why is it that plants growing on exposed sea-shores 

 have a tendency to lie upon the ground or otherwise to evade 

 the violence of the winds ? But when a plant is growing among 

 others, it has to compete with them in raising itself into con- 

 spicuousness, and any slight disadvantage from exposure to the 

 winds would be more than compensated by the advantage of 

 being able to spread its flowers and foliage in the sunlight and 

 attract insects. 



The only plant of any size I found above timber-line on the 

 Sangre de Cristo Range was Cnicus crioccphahis, a wonderful 

 great thistle, with bright chrome-yellow flowers, which are 

 visited by humble-bees. But this plant is very prickly and 

 woolly, and its heads are nodding ; it is, though it seems para- 

 doxical to say so, a gigantic dwarf 



The splendid Piinmla parryi shows its crimson flowers by 

 creeks at very high altitudes in Colorado ; an allied but very 

 small species lives above timber-line in the same districts, called 

 P. angustifolia. These are true species; angusiifolia is not 

 starved or frozen /ar; J?. Now P. parryi is coming into culti- 

 vation, it would be interesting to see whether it could be modi- 

 fied by environment in the direction of angustifolia, and how far 

 such modification would be inherited. 



There are other matters one might discuss, but I think I have 

 already wiitten enough. I merely ask, will Prof. Henslow 

 give a case in which the direct effect of environment has pro- 

 duced inherited dwarfing? Will he also show that natural selec- 

 tion cannot produce a dwarfed variety, or that artificial selection 

 has not ? T. D. A. Cockerell. • 



3 Fairfax Road, Bedford Park, Chiswick, W., April 27. 



Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, in his interesting letter in Nature 

 (p. 581), does not mention one of the strikirg characteristics of 

 the Alpine flora— the remarkable brilliancy of the flowers, as 

 compared with those boixe by the same or similar species in 



