Sept., 1904.] 



KNOWLEDGE c^ SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



205 



Photo, bjf Soper & SUdmnn.] 



PROF. C. S. SHERRINGTON. 



Section K. Bota.ny.— The Preception of 

 the Force of Gravity by Plants. 



Mr. Francis Darwin, I'.K.S., President of Uh- Botanical 

 Section, is the third son of Charles Darwin and of Emma 

 Wedgwood, and was born 184S, at Down. (The Editors of 

 " Knowledge and Scientific News "asked Mr. Darwin if he 

 would be kind enough to oblige them with some biographical par- 

 ticulars, and those that he has furnished are so interesting 

 that it is thought desirable to leave them in their present 

 form.) Mr. Darwin writes: — "I was educated at Trinity 

 College, Cambridge (M.A., M.B.), and St. George's Hospital. 

 London. When a medical student I worked at the Brown 

 Institute under Dr. E. Klein, and this was my first real bit of 

 education in science. Dr. Klein gave me some original work 

 to do, part of which served as my thesis for the Cambridge 

 M.B. Dr. Klein's influence made me desire to take up natural 

 science rather than the practice of medicine, so that I was 

 only too glad to accept my father's proposition, that I should 

 act as his assistant. I lived at Down, working with my father 

 till his death in 1882. I then moved to Cambridge where I 

 ultimately became Reader in Botany and Fellow of Christ's, 

 my father's ol<l college. 



" My scientific work has been in Physiological Botany, on 

 which I have published various papers. My ' Practical 

 Physiology of Plants' (1894) (for which the late E. H. Acton 

 wrote the chemical part) has had some influence on the teach- 

 ing of this part of botany, and is now in its 3rd edition. I 

 also wrote a little book, ' The Elements of Botany' (1895), 

 which gives the substance of my lectures to medical students. 



" In 1887 I brought out 'The Life and Letters of Charles 

 Darwin.' In 1892 an abbreviated version in one volume was 

 published, giving the autol)iography, my personal recollec- 

 tions, and a selection of the letters. 



" In 1903, in collaboration with Mr. Seward, I brought out 

 ' More Letters of Charles Darwin,' two volumes made up 

 chiefly of letters which could not be included in the ' Life,' 

 but also containing materi.il obtained since 1887. During the 

 present summer I shall lesign the Readership of Botany and 

 my Fellowship, and propose to live in London. 



"Through the kindness of the Committee of the Chelsea 

 Physic Garden, I am for the present pnn idcd with a labora- 

 tory, and with house room for my fatlier's library, which I 

 have been permitted to deposit in the lecluro-room at the 

 Physic Garden." 



Mr. Francis Darwin's address to the Botanical Section 

 was a summary of the knowledge that has been gained of the 

 ways in which plants become sensible of the influence ot 

 gravity, and .adjust themselves to its suggestions. As long ago 

 as 1824 Dutrochct imagined that tlie movements of plants- 

 were dictated at the suggestion of changes in their siir 

 roir- ''■ •■■it'-r-r th:iii thit tlic,- v.rrn thr ilircct ;ind nrcos?arv 



Photo, by KUiot {■• Fnj 



FRANCIS DARWIN. 



result of such changes. Mr. Darwin has been in the habit of 

 expressing the same thing in other words, using the idea of a 

 guide or sign-posts, by the perception of which plants were 

 able to make their way successfully through the difficulties of 

 their surroundings. The force of gravity was one of the most 

 striking features of a plant's environment ; and in the sensi- 

 tiveness of a plant to this force we had one of the most wide- 

 spread instances of a plant's ability to read a signpost and 

 direct its growth accordingly. Mr. Darwin's paper reviewed 

 the ways in which what might be called the sense-organs 

 of plants transmit the knowledge throughout its organism, 

 and the ways by which in theory these sense organs are 

 affected by the outside influence. 



Sub= Section. —Agriculture. 



Dr. William Somervklle, M..A.., D.Sc, owned and fanned a 

 small estate in Lanarkshire till 24. From 24 to 28 studied agri- 

 cultural science in Edinburgh University during winter, and 

 travelled on the Continent during summer. Secured Vans 

 Dunlop Scholarship and went to Munich in iS«8 to study 

 forestry. Appointed Lecturer on Forestry, F.diiiburgh Uni- 

 versity, 1S89. Professor of .'\griculture and Forestry, Durham 

 College of Science, 1891. Professor of Agriculture, Camljridge, 

 and Professorial Fellow of King's College, 1899. Assistant 

 Secretary to the Board of Agriculture, with charge of the 

 Branches of Intelligence and Education, 1902. Started experi- 



