May 18, 1899] 
NAT ORE 
59 
family for like experiments on the variability of hybrids, 
in doing which he came face to face with difficulties in 
classification needing the eye of a systematist. How 
these were met, Sir Joseph Hooker, whom he helped in 
dealing with this order for the Genera Plantarum, and 
others testify. It is clear that if he multiplied names 
unduly, he still. grouped naturally and truly the allied 
forms. In the question of hybridity he emphasised 
abundantly the fact. that hybrids frequently have a 
varying measure of fertility, stating at the same time 
that in varying they return to the parent forms, and for that 
reason fail to establish their race—a contention which 
led to a long controversy. 
At this period his work as a gardener came into fruit : 
the Manuel de amateur des jardins, and a connection 
with the Revue Horticole, Flore des Serres and Le bon 
Jardinier testify to it. But the neuralgia increased, and 
drove him to seek an asylum away from work in the 
Pyrenees, whence in 1878 he was called to take charge 
of the experimental station known as the Villa Thuret at 
Antibes. 
There, in the pleasant climate of the Mediterranean 
shore, he experimented in the acclimatisation of such 
plants as were suitable. Algeria, among French Colonies, 
needed improved cultivation; and the exigence of 
Algeria called his attention to the vegetation of dry 
countries. From Australia he grew Zucalyfti and 
Chenopodiaceae ; from South Africa he experimented with 
Acanthosicyos; and the flowering and fruiting and 
hybridisation of palms interested him strongly. To these 
experiments on Australian plants is doubtless due his 
connection with Sir Ferdinand von Mueller, which led to 
a joint Manuel de l Acclimateur. 
This must suffice to indicate the direction of his work— 
work for which the French-speaking people feel a keen 
gratitude. To us, it is interesting to recall that a few of 
his later notes appeared in our language in the Gardeners’ 
Chronicle, while two of his earlier papers were con- 
sidered of sufficient importance to merit translation. 
Wo Ek 18 
THE NEW BUILDINGS AT SOUTH 
KENSINGTON. 
HE foundation stone of the new extension of the Art 
Museum at South Kensington was laid by Her 
Majesty the Queen yesterday. When completed, the 
Museum will be one of the most imposing structures in 
London, so far as size is concerned. It will have a 
frontage on Cromwell Road of 700 feet—almost precisely 
the same frontage as that of the Natural History Museum 
—and in the Exhibition Road there will be a frontage of 
300 feet. The area of the new buildings will be equal to 
the whole of that covered by the existing Museum, 
including the temporary sheds on the west side of 
Exhibition Road. 
The Art Museum thus completed is to be called the 
Victoria and Albert Museum. 
The commencement of the new buildings does not 
directly concern us except that they are complementary 
to other buildings to be provided for Science on the 
ground facing the Imperial Institute. It has generally 
been understood since the Report of the Duke of Devon- 
shire’s Commission, which sat about a quarter of a century 
ago, that a Science Museum was to be built upon this 
ground. This being so, the building scheme might 
appropriately have included an Albert Museum for 
Science as well as a Victoria Museum for Art. But no 
provision has been made for such anew Science Museum. 
According to the Zzes, the centre of the building which 
it is proposed to place opposite the Imperial Institute 
will be occupied by the Science Library, and in the plan 
given by the Zzmes the proposed buildings are called 
NO. 1542, VOL. 60] 
“Royal: College of Science.” But this is not so, 
The remainder of the frontage will be taken up by 
chemical and physical laboratories alone ; the other de- 
partments of the Royal College of Science—astronomical 
physics, geology, biology, mechanics, mining and metal- 
lurgy—will apparently be left in the same unorganised 
condition as exists at present. It is indeed generally 
imagined, and it may even be the view of the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer, that the new buildings are to accom- 
modate all the departments of the Royal College of 
Science. 
We read, for instance, in Tuesday’s 77mes :— 
“As regards the Royal College of Science, it will, as 
already indicated, occupy a position directly facing the 
Imperial Institute. It is to be of the same length as the 
Institute, and, in the interests of architectural harmony, 
it will reproduce several of its leading features. The 
College will be recessed from the road in the same way; 
the main entrance of the one will be opposite that of 
the other, and will be.so rounded that between the two 
a large circular space will be left—in the centre of which 
a statue may be erected later on—the circle being flanked 
by the great buildings on each side. The domes or 
lodges at each extreme of the Imperial Institute will be 
repeated at corresponding points of the College, and the 
respective sets connected by a screen across the road- 
way, thus facilitating passage from one side to the other. 
The new College of Science will also form a front to 
the present Science Museum buildings, but there is no 
idea of the College forming in itself an additional 
“museum ” in the recognised sense of that term. It will 
rather be devoted to strictly educational purposes, the 
right wing being occupied by the physical side of the 
College and the left by the chemical department, while 
the great laboratories and lecture theatres are to be in 
the rear, the whole being, further, in direct connection 
with the present Science Museum.” 
We repeat, the new so-called “College of Science” 
will represent only a small portion of the College. That 
the teaching of some of the subjects now carried on in 
buildings almost half a mile apart, gains nothing from 
the new scheme, might perhaps have been borne if it 
were perfectly certain that ultimately all the teaching 
would be brought together. But unfortunately this 
is now very much more unlikely than it has ever 
been before, unless the Science Museum is to be en- 
croached upon, and its future possibilities of extension for 
ever wrecked ; and the more the architectural effect is to 
be enhanced by recessing the new buildings from the 
road, the more, naturally, will the space difficulty be 
increased for College and Museum alike. We have 
heard that the plans prepared by the Professors of the 
Royal College themselves some years ago left the 
central portion clear primarily for the Museum suggested 
by the Duke of Devonshire’s Commission, the chemical 
and physical laboratories having their frontage along 
Prince’s Gate. That scheme was far preferable to the 
present one, so far as providing for the other require- 
ments of both College and Museum are concerned. 
In any case it must be acknowledged that the building of 
the chemical and physical laboratories is only a first step. 
We shall be glad to know that the future has been con- 
sidered ; and that there already exists a plan showing the 
condition of things when subsequent stages have been 
reached, even up to the final one. But we very much 
doubt whether it has been any one’s business to con- 
sider any of these things, and responsibility-is divided 
among so many departments that it is scarcely to be 
wondered at if the future has never been considered at 
all. But there is one thing greatly to be feared, and it is 
this. Not only does the plan to be carried out leave the 
greater part of the teaching ina chaotic state with no 
chance of betterment while the new buildings are going 
on ; but when they are completed, some future Chancellor 
