224 



NATURE 



[July 9, 1903 



absence of bees. This, however, is hardly correct, for there 

 are several species of native bees in New Zealand which 

 constantly visit composite flowers. But Pleurophyllum 

 speciosum has very conspicuous purple flowers, although it 

 is found only in Campbell and Auckland Islands, where 

 there are no bees or flower-visiting moths. Nor does it 

 stand alone, for Celmisia vernicosa, and its ally C. chap- 

 mani, are the only species of the genus with purple discs, 

 and yet they also are only found in Campbell and Auckland 

 Islands. In C. vernicosa, also, the leaves have become 

 rigid, although no animal feeds upon it. 



I think that these facts are of sufficient interest to bring 

 to the notice of botanists, at a time when, perhaps, we too 

 readily accept selection as the explanation of every character. 

 For in these Antarctic islands the conditions of life are so 

 simple that we can eliminate many causes which complicate 

 the same problems in areas with more varied life. 



F. W. HUTTON. 



Christchurch, New Zealand, May 23. 



The Origin of Variation. 



The following argument may be of interest to your 

 readers, if, as 1 suspect, it has never been thus formulated 

 before. 



In order to account for the origin of species, we must 

 assume that the tendency of an individual to vary is handed 

 down to future generations by appropriate modifications in 

 the transmitted germ-plasm. But, unless we believe in the 

 inheritance of acquired characters (for which we have no 

 certain evidence), the tendency of the first individual to vary 

 can only have become manifest if it had originated in a 

 modification of its own parents' germ-plasm ; otherwise thai 

 tendency could not have been inherited. Leaving out of 

 account the play of changing external conditions, we are 

 thus forced to regard the variability of individuals as the 

 result of variations in the parental germ-plasm. The 

 problem is, how are such variations produced? 



Charles S. Myers. 



Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, June 29. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



THE Southport meeting of the British Association 

 will begin on Wednesday, September 9. The local 

 arrangements, which have been in the hands of a large 

 and representative committee for many months past, 

 are now well advanced, and give every indication that 

 the meeting will not fall short of that held in Southport 

 twenty years ago. 



It was not without fear and misgiving on the part 

 of some of its more prominent members that the Asso- 

 ciation visited Southport in 1883, but the success of the 

 meeting in the northern watering-place was so con. 

 spicuous that at the final general meeting there was 

 a unanimous expression of opinion that the Southport 

 meeting of 1883 had been one of the most successful 

 ever held, and a desire to repeat it at some future date. 

 The meeting then stood sixth in point of numbers, and 

 third in receipts. Since that date the Southport meet- 

 ing has only been exceeded in numbers by the meetings 

 in the neighbouring cities of Manchester and Liver- 

 pool, and in receipts by Manchester alone. 2714 people 

 attended the meeting of 1883, and it is confidently 

 hoped that this number will be exceeded in 1903. 



The Corporation of Southport is working with the 

 local committee to make the meeting a success, and 

 has placed at its disposal the, handsome suite of Muni- 

 cipal Buildings for use during the week of the Associa- 

 tion's visit. These buildings include the Town Hall, 

 Cambridge Hall, Art Gallery, and Victoria Science 

 and Art Schools. The three first named of these were 

 in use at the former Southport meeting of the British 

 Association, but they were then without direct com- 

 munication one with another. They are now connected 

 by corridor bridges, and form an admirable suite of 



NO. 1758. VOL fS81 



rooms for municipal and other social functions. The 

 Victoria Science and Art Schools occupy a site behind 

 the Cambridge Hall, with which, as well as with the 

 Art Gallery, they are connected on the first floor, thus 

 forming a further addition to the suite of reception 

 rooms. This block of Municipal Buildings, which 

 stands directly in the centre of the town, facing Lord 

 Street, will be the headquarters of the Association. The 

 reception room will be situated in the Examination 

 Hall of the Science and Art Schools, the entrance being 

 by the main doorway of Cambridge Hall. It is pro- 

 posed that the Examination Hall shall be used for 

 counter business only, the large room of the Art Gallery 

 close by being used as a second reception room for 

 conversational and general purposes. Two other of 

 the picture galleries will be set apart for reading and 

 writing rooms, whilst a fourth will be allotted to the 

 representatives of the Press. 



Three of the sections will meet in the Science and 

 Art Schools, viz. Sections A (which is in two depart- 

 ments. Mathematics and Astronomy), B (Chemistry), 

 and G (Engineering). Section L (Education) will meet 

 in the Cambridge Hall, and Section H (Anthropology) 

 in the Town Hall. Five out of the ten sections meeting 

 this year will thus be located in the Municipal Build- 

 ings, and in easy communication one with another. 



The council of the Association will meet in the 

 council chamber of the Town Hall, and here also the 

 general committee and the council of recommendations 

 will hold their meetings. Two of the Corporation com- 

 mittee rooms in the Town Hall have been set aside for 

 the deliberations of the I'lternational Meteorological 

 Committee, which is meeting in Southport at the 

 same time as the British Association, and of which a 

 notice has already appeared in Nature (May 14). 



The laboratory of the Science and Art Schools will be 

 used as a meteorological museum, and for the recep- 

 tion of apparatus and specimens illustrative of papers 

 communicated to the sections. 



The remaining five sections are all located in build- 

 ings within three minutes' walk of the reception room. 

 Sections D and E (Zoology and Geography) will meet 

 in the Temperance Institute, London Street, Section C 

 (Geology) in Hoghton Street Church schoolroom. 

 Section K (Botany) in Chapel Street Church school- 

 room, and Section F (Economics), in the Y.M.C.A. 

 building, Eastbank Street. The conference of dele- 

 gates of corresponding societies will have two rooms 

 placed at its disposal in Chapel Street Schools. All 

 these buildings lie close to one another, and are easily 

 reached by trams from all parts of the town. 



The first general meeting of the Association will be 

 held on Wednesday evening, September 9, at 8.30, in 

 the Opera House, when the president. Sir Norman 

 Lockyer, will deliver his inaugural address. 



The Friday evening discourse will be delivered by 

 Dr. Robert Munro, on " Man as Artist and Sportsman 

 in the Palaeolithic Period." On Monday evening a 

 discourse will be given by Dr. Arthur Rowe on " The 

 Old Chalk Sea, and some of its Teaching-s. " The 

 Saturday evening lecture to working men will be given 

 by Dr. J. S. Flett, his subject being the recent volcanic 

 eruptions in the West Indies. All these three lectures 

 will be delivered in the Cambridge Hall, which seats 

 about 1500 persons. 



On Thursday evening the Mayor of Southport (Mr. 

 T. T. L. Scarisbrick) will give a reception in the Muni- 

 cipal Buildings, and the local committee will give a 

 conversazione in the same place on September 15. 



The Mayor will further give a garden party in 

 Hesketh Park on Friday afternoon, and Sir George 

 Pilkington gives a garden party to a limited number 

 of members at his residence. Belle Vue, on the after- 

 noon of Mondav or Tuesday, September 14 or 15. 



