86 



DISCOVERY 



effort to exploit the world's resources, and link 

 together the four corners of the world in the great 

 web of modern industry. There is no fact, however 

 insignificant it appears, which may not come to have 

 a bearing on the dail}' life of mankind. In a sense, 

 the doctor, the scientist, the lawyer, the politician, and 

 the journalist all work for one object — the safety and 

 development of industry. The naturalist who, with 

 butterfly net and specimen box, has often been pointed 

 at with derision as a type of the futility of purely 

 scientific energy, has been the means of making 

 possible the cutting of the Panama Canal by destroying 

 the insect pests that spread disease and death. We 

 would even venture to say that, if great discoveries 

 are to be made, they must come from the investigation 

 of seemingly " useless " phenomena. When the \'alue 

 of a scientific discovery is established for industrial 

 purposes, it may be developed to a very high degree 

 of efficiency, but its limitations can be imagined from 

 the beginning. It is of the essence of the completely 

 new discovery that it was inconceivable before dis- 

 covery, and how can such knowledge come save by 

 constant disinterested efforts along ways never ven- 

 tured on before ? How many invaluable marvels, 

 from tlie X-ray to Radium, have come to light as 

 accidents of the laboratory ? 



***** 



The words of Sir Alfred Yarrow, in making his recent 

 gift of £100,000 for the furtherance of scientific re- 

 search, deserve to be quoted in full : " I should like 

 to record my firm conviction that a patriotic citizen 

 cannot give money, or leave it at his death, to better 

 advantage than towards the development of science, 

 upon which the industrial success of the country so 

 largely depends." It is a matter for special satisfaction 

 that this splendid gift has been earmarked rather for 

 the support of scientific investigators than for building 

 homes of research. In spite of the work of the Medical 

 Research Council, and the grants by the Royal Society 

 towards research in general, this country remains a 

 long way behind America, and even Germany, in its 

 provision for scientific workers. There are, fortu- 

 nately, if not enough, at any rate a satisfactory number 

 of institutions for scientific study. But the scientist 

 is more important than his house ; a scientist could, 

 conceivably, work in the open, whereas even the largest 

 laboratory is comparatively valueless without an in- 

 habitant. And undoubtedly many of those best fitted 

 for the task of new discovery cannot undertake it 

 from financial reasons, while those who do must spend 

 a large proportion of their time, not in original work, 

 but in the exposition of the elements of their lore to 

 students. We hope that these and many other prob- 

 lems at present confronting scientists and their work 

 will be satisfactorily resolved during this decade. 



Plants as Travellers 



By A. C. Sevi'ard, Sc.D., F.R.S. 



Master of D' wiling College and Professor of Botany in ttie Uniu^Tsity of 

 Cambridge 



The publication of a paper bj' a Dutch botanist, Dr. 

 Leeuwen, in the last number of the Annals of the 

 famous botanical garden of Buitenzorg, in Java, enables 

 naturalists to follow to a further stage the results of 

 one of the most remarkable experiments made by 

 Nature of which we have any record. Dr. Leeuwen's 

 contribution is the most recent addition to a collection 

 of facts, accumulated at intervals during the last 

 thirty-six years, illustrating the capabilities of plants 

 as travellers and as colonisers of bare ground. The 

 author describes the vegetation of the small islands of 

 Krakatau and Sebesi in the Sunda Strait between Java 

 and Sumatra as he saw it in igif) and 1921. A brief 

 statement will suffice to show that the vegetation of 

 these Malayan islands is, from a certain point of view, 

 more interesting than that of anj' other region in the 

 world. Lying about midway between Java and 

 Sumatra is a group of islands including Krakatau, 

 Verlaten, and Lang Island ; between Verlaten Island 

 and Sumatra is another island, Sebesi. 



The Eruption of Krakatau 



It is with Krakatau that wc are primarily concerned. 

 In the early part of 1883 Krakatau was five and a half 

 miles long and three and a half miles broad ; on the 

 south side the peak Rakata rose to a height of nearly 

 3,000 ft. The whole of the island, from sea-level to 

 the summit of the mountain, was covered with an 

 impenetrable tropical forest. Krakatau was known 

 to be volcanic, but it was believed to be extinct. In 

 the course of the summer of 1883 the long-dormant 

 volcanic forces awoke, and there were repeated 

 explosions and showers of ash and pumice. To- 

 wards the end of August the climax was reached : 

 at places in Java, 100 miles away, the noise of the 

 explosions resembled artillery-fire at close range, 

 and it is stated that sounds were heard on the island 

 of Rodriguez 3,000 miles from Krakatau. Villages 

 on the island of Sebesi, twelve miles distant, suffered 

 the fate of Pompeii. Volcanic dust fell in enormous 

 masses over a wide area, and some of the finer particles 

 floated in the higher regions of the atmosphere round 

 the world, causing, as I well remember, brilliant twilight 

 effects in England in December 1883. When all was • 

 over it was found that two-thirds of Krakatau had been ' 

 blown into space : the peak Rakata had been spht j 

 from base to summit ; a vertical precipice replaced its j 

 forest-covered slopes. The green island teeming with ; 

 life had been converted into a lifeless desert covered i 



