98 
In this way it has become possible to give an account of the 
abnormities which have presented themselves to us from 
1892—1895. 
Is our account worth publishing after the admirable book of 
Prof. Penzig of Genoa? 1 venture to think it is. Now that - 
the botanical station of Buitenzorg, through the devotion and 
untiring activity of the Director of the Garden, is attracting 
an increasing number of visitors, the attention of botanists is 
more and more directed to tropical vegetation. Physiology and 
more especially biology are in a fair way to obtain footing in the 
tropics and they have already suggested questions , to which the 
solution can be given only in those regions. Of course I do not 
mean to say that between the tropics there should reign other 
laws of nature, or that any such laws should be discoverable 
only there; nevertheless it is certain that the widely different 
conditions of the tropics in many cases lead the naturalist in 
a much easier way to an insight into various phenomena. 
Moreover, the wider the field over which natural research ex- 
tends, the more reliable the information thus obtained is 
likely to be. 
Therefore it seems to me of importance that teratology in 
the East-Indies, or generally speaking in the tropical regions, 
should be more closely studied, than it has hitherto been. In 
- Europe this branch of botany has attracted students already 
for three centuries past. It first came into the hands of lovers 
of curios, then, like the whole of scientific botany, it became 
purely descriptive and so remained long after Anatomy and 
Physiology had become independent parts of botanical science. 
Only quite recently it has been established on a really scientific 
basis, firstly owing to vegetable pathology which pointed 
out the causes of many disturbances, secondly through 
the doctrine of atavism, which deals with reversions, and 
finally through the doctrine of heredity, by which we are 
enabled to fix and to strengthen certain deviations '). 
1) See: Hugo de Vries, Sur l’hérédité de la fasciation. Dodonaea 1894 p. 110. 
