552 



NA TURE 



[October 3, 1901 



fluctuating supplies of moisture and of humus, inventing 

 new absorbing and fixing organs, and contriving fresh 

 devices for resisting threatened death from thirst or 

 starvation, until at length their perilous career was 

 crowned with success and they formed aerial meadows, 

 gardens, shrubberies, and even forests. Schiniper showed 

 that the evolution of epiphytes was still reflected in the 

 forest, where the simplest epiphytes lurk low down in 

 moist shaded crevices of the tree trunks, and the more 

 elaborate ones are ranged successively upwards until, 

 even before the tree-tops are reached, perfection is 

 practically attained. Further, he taught how, having 

 emerged into the full blaze of the tropical sun, some 

 epiphytes had sprung across to the savannahs, where 

 they colonised the isolated trees or clothed the naked- 

 ness of the bare rocks. And still later he carried the 

 history one step further and revealed some epiphytes 

 flying up to the mountain-tops and others leaping down 

 to the ground near the sea. 



The next ctcological paper, that on myrmecophilous 

 plants (1S8S), furnished relatively little that was new, but 

 by the application of a strict method of research it de- 

 finitely proved views that had been promulgated by that 

 sagacious naturalist. Belt. 



The very brief communication on the means of pro- 

 tection against transpiration (i8go) was possibly the most 

 suggestive ever issued by Schimper. In it he explained 

 that terrestrial plants living on or near the sea shore, even 

 in saline swamps, or growing inland in the vicinity of 

 salt springs, require to protect themselves against exces- 

 sive transpiration owing to the difficulty in obtaining a 

 sufficient supply of water with or without salt. Further, 

 he pointed out that Alpine plants in the tropics, at spots 

 where there is no snow, reveal the same xerophilous 

 character as in temperate regions, and it is against 

 desiccation due to exalted transpiration, and not against 

 cold as such, that Alpine plants have to battle. Finally 

 he directed attention to the fact that in temperate regions 

 deciduous trees shed their leaves because they cannot 

 absorb water sufficiently rapidly from the cold soil ; 

 whereas evergreen trees can retain their foliage because 

 of the xerophytic structure of the latter. (Though he 

 was not aware of the fact, Schimper was not the actual 

 discoverer of this truth, for I find that Hales appreciated 

 it.) These considerations led to the solution of several 

 geographical problems. They explained how, in tem- 

 perate and tropical regions alike, Alpine plants may re- 

 appear on the sea shore ; how, in the tropics, epiphytes 

 reappear as terrestrial plants on Alpine heights, on the 

 sea shore, or near salt-springs. These plants can inter- 

 change positions because they are all adapted to resist 

 one danger — excessive transpiration. 



In his last ctcological paper on a special subject — the 

 Indo-Malayan littoral vegetation (iSgi)— the principles 

 enunciated in the preceding work were proved and ex- 

 panded, and other relations between littoral plants and 

 their animate and inanimate surroundings were dealt 

 with. It is impossible to do justice to this paper in a 

 brief note, but it may be mentioned that the important 

 distinction between salt-loving and salt-hating plants was 

 shown to refer, not merely to plants growing on the 

 shores or inland respectively, but to whole orders or 

 cohorts. Littoral plants, then, are salt-enduring represen- 

 tatives that have been drixenby competition to the fringe 

 of vegetatiorf, where they have evolved new features in 

 their vegetative and reproductive parts in order that they 

 may exist and spread abroad from shore to shore. 



Schimper's last book, a general work on geographical 

 distribution of plants considered from a physiological 

 standpoint, is beyond doubt one of the most illuminating 

 botanical works ever published. No one save a wide 

 traveller, inspired with a deep love for, and close sympathy 

 with, Nature could have written this masterpiece. It 

 was the crowning piece of his life, for Schimper was 



NO. 1666, VOL. 64] 



stricken down in the midst of a new work on island 

 floras. 



In conclusion we may say that Schimper revolutionised 

 our ideas as to the fundamental constitution of the unit 

 of plant life, widened and deepened our knowledge of the 

 physiology of green assimilating cells, and, himself in 

 every field in which he worked an earnest advocate, and 

 even inventor, of strict methods of research, he, in 

 particular, took a foremost place in raising up a true 

 science of cecology. Through the passing of Schimper 

 the world of science is darker by the extinction of a 

 light which, if it did not glow with steady incandescence, 

 yet C]uivered and scintillated with genius. 



Percy Groom. 



NOTES. 



Lntrodiictory addresses were delivered on Tuesday at 

 several of the London and provincial medical schools, to open 

 the new session. Dr. P. \V. Latham, speaking at St. George's 

 Hospital, pointed out that organic chemistry will in time tell 

 exactly what is the composition and constitution of toxins, 

 albumoses, antitoxins, &c., which have proved of service to 

 medicine, and how they may be artificially synthesised in the 

 laboratory. The vegetable alkaloids quinine, morphine and 

 atropine, have been isolated within the last century ; and the 

 syntheses of citric acid and indigo have been effected from 

 their elements. The isolation of the animal alkaloids may 

 be more difficult, but it will be accomplished— some have 

 already been obtained, others will follow ; the isolation of the 

 antitoxins will be the next chemical triumph, and then will 

 come the synthetical production of these life-saving substances. 

 At University College, Prof. R. Russell begged his hearers 

 to cultivate the spirit of scientific inquiry. Every scientific 

 investigation, if properly conducted, might be expected to dis- 

 close some new fact, and this was the only way in which true 

 progress could be made. It was to men of science that every 

 real fresh advance in medicine was due. The so-called practical 

 man could do little more than apply and utilise the discoveries 

 of the investigator. A belief prevalent among some people, 

 that a man could not be both scientific and practical, and 

 that the cultivation of the one spirit must of necessity be at 

 the expense of the other, he regarded as a great fallacy. 

 Medicine and surgery could only be expected to be 

 advanced by a proper commingling of the scientific and 

 the practical, so that scientific principles might find practical 

 application in the elucidation and treatment of disease. 

 At the London School of Medicine for Women, Dr. K. W. 

 Andrewes also referred to the intimate relation between scientific 

 studies and medical practice. He remarked, for instance, that 

 the methods by which pathology is studied are precisely those 

 used in other pure sciences — observation and experiment — and 

 it is this science which is placing medicine and surgery on a 

 scientific basis. It is obvious that a sound knowledge of disease 

 is an indispensable preliminary to its reasonable treatment. At 

 the Royal Veterinary College, Prof Crookshank discussed the 

 subject of the relation between human and bovine tuberculosis. 

 Dr. A. P. Luff, at the Pharmaceutical Society, commented upon 

 the too general use of powerful drugs in compressed forms, and 

 of proprietary preparations, in the treatment of disease. Ad- 

 dresses were also given by Dr. W. Hill at St. Mary's Hospital, 

 and Dr. T. H. Kellock at Middlesex Hospital. 



The forty-sixth annual exhibition of the Royal Photographic 

 Society was opened to the public on Monday at the New Gallery, 

 Regent Street, and although the greater part of the available 

 space is occupied by exhibits of the artistic and professional 

 kinds, there is an important section devoted to scientific and 



