JuLy 20, 1899] 
Andrew Knight, and especially Dean Herbert, took up the work, 
with what splendid results you all know. 
It is curious, however, to note that objections and prejudices 
arose from two sources. Many worthy people objected to the 
production of hybrids, on the ground that it was an impious 
interference with the laws of nature. To such an extent was 
this prejudice carried, that a former firm of nurserymen at 
Tooting, celebrated in their day for the culture, amongst other 
things, of heaths, in order to avoid wounding sensitive suscept- 
ibilities, exhibited as new species introduced from the Cape of 
Good Hope forms which had really been originated by cross- 
breeding in their own nurseries. 
The best answer to this prejudice was supplied by Dean 
Herbert, whose orthodoxy was beyond suspicion. He, like 
Linnzus before him, had observed the existence of natural 
hybrids, and he set to work experimentally to prove the justness 
of his opinion. He succeeded in raising, as Engleheart has 
done since, many hybrid narcissi, such as he had seen wild in 
the Pyrenees, by means of artificial cross-breeding. If such 
forms exist in nature, there can be no impropriety in producing 
them by the art of the gardener. 
In our own time, Reichenbach, judging from appearances, 
described as natural hybrids numerous orchids. Veitch and 
others have confirmed the conjecture by producing by arti- 
ficial fertilisation the very same forms which the botanist 
described. 
It remains only to speak of another respectable but mistaken 
prejudice that has existed against the extension of hybridisation. 
I am sorry to say this has been on the part of the botanists. It 
is not indeed altogether surprising that the botanists should have 
objected to the inconvenience and confusion introduced into 
their systems of classification by the introduction of hybrids and 
mongrels, and that they should object to hybrid species, and 
much more to hybrid genera ; but it would be very unscientific 
to prefer the interests of our systems to the discovery of the 
truth. 
I may mention two cases where scepticism still exists as to 
the real nature of certain plants: Clematis jackmanz of our 
gardens, raised, as is alleged, by Mr. Jackman, of Woking 
(Gardeners Chronicle, 1864, p. 825), was considered by M. 
Decaisne and M. Lavallée! to be a real Japanese species, and 
not a hybrid. This may be so, but there is no absolute im- 
possibility in the conjecture that the Japanese plant and the 
cultivated plant originated in the same way. Again, Mr. Cul- 
verwell’s supposed hybrid between the strawberry and the rasp- 
berry has been pronounced to be no hybrid, but to be Rzzdzs 
Zeesti. But what, we may ask, is Rubus leestz? It appears 
to be a sterile form more closely allied to the raspberry than to 
the strawberry. Is it not at least possible that Mr. Culverwell 
has produced it artificially ? 
The days when ‘‘species” were deemed sacrosanct, and 
‘“systems” were considered ‘‘natural” have passed, and 
Darwin, just as Herbert did in another way, has taught us to 
welcome hybridisation as one means of ascertaining the true 
relationships of plants and the limitations of species and genera. 
Darwin’s researches and experiments on cross-fertilisation 
came as a revelation to many practical experimenters, and we 
recall with something akin to humiliation the fact that we had 
been for years exercising ourselves about the relative merits of 
“*pin eyes” and ‘‘thrum eyes” in primroses, without ever 
perceiving the vast significance of these apparently trifling details 
of structure. 
It would occupy too much time were I to dilate upon the 
labours of Gaertner, of Godron, of Naudin, of Naegeli, of 
Millardet, of Lord Penzance, of Engleheart, and many others. 
Nor need I do more than make a passing reference to the 
wonderful morphological results obtained by the successive 
crossings and inter-crossings of the tuberous begonias, changes 
so remarkable that a French botanist was even constrained to 
found a new genus, Lemoinea, so widely have they deviated 
from the typical begonias. 
For scientific reasons, then, no less than for practical purposes, 
the study of cross-breeding is most important, and we welcome 
the opportunity that this conference affords of extending our 
knowledge of the life-history of plants, in full confidence that it 
will not only increase our stock of knowledge, but also enable 
us still further to apply it to the benefit of mankind. 
1 Lavallée, ‘‘ Les Clematites 4 Grandes Fleurs,” p. 6 and p. 9, tab. iv.: 
Clematis hakonensis. 
NO. 1551, VOL. 60] 
NATURE 
287 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Dr. A. C, Houston has been appointed Lecturer in Bacteri- 
ology at Bedford College, London, for Women. 
Dr. W. WAcE CARLIER, at present Lecturer on Experimental 
Physiology and Histology in the University of Edinburgh, has 
been appointed Professor of Physiology in Mason University 
College, Birmingham, 
THE Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 have 
approved the nomination by the University College of North 
Wales of Mr. Robert Duncombe Abell to a Science Research 
Scholarship of the value of 1507. a year. Mr. Abell is about 
to enter the University of Leipzig, where he proposes to engage 
in a special research under the direction of Prof. Wislicenus. 
THE following appointments abroad may be noticed :—Dr. 
James Ewing to be professor of pathology in the Cornell 
University Medical College; Dr. Charles W. Wardner to be 
professor of physics in Williams College; Dr. H. G. Byers ta 
be professor of chemistry in the State University of Washing- 
ton; Dr. Alfred H. Seal to be professor of chemistry in Girard 
College, Philadelphia. 
THE new buildings of the London Hospital Medical College 
were opened on Tuesday last. They occupy the site of the old 
chemical theatre and laboratory, and comprise the following 
rooms and departments. On the basement is the department of 
public health, containing a large museum, professors’ room, 
class rooms, &c. ; on the ground floor, the biological laboratory, 
class rooms, and the materia medica museum ; on the first floor, 
the chemical theatre and laboratories, and the balance room ; 
on the second floor, the physics laboratory, the chemical labor- 
atory for the diploma in public health classes, the operative 
surgery room, and a large anatomy class room leading from the 
dissecting room. On the third floor is the bacteriological 
department, with general laboratory, research laboratories, class 
rooms for public health work, sterilising room, &c. Other 
portions of the building have thus been left for additional 
development, and advantage has been taken of this to provide 
special class rooms for students studying for the preliminary 
scientific, the intermediate M.B., London, and other examin- 
ations. Additions have also been made to the present physio- 
logical department, giving rooms for original research and for 
special class work for the higher examinations. For all these 
departments special teachers have already been appointed, who 
are devoting their entire time to the particular subjects that they 
have undertaken. The new buildings, with their fittings, will 
cost altogether not less than 10,000/. 
SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 
Bollettino della Socteta Sismologica Ltaliana, vol. v. No. 1, 
1899-1900. —The rules of the Society and list of Fellows (forty- 
three national and ten foreign) are given.—Determination of 
the epicentre and time at the origin of earthquakes of unknown 
origin propagated along the earth’s surface by means of four or 
five time-observations, by G. Costanzi. Equations for the above 
purposes are obtained on the supposition that the surface-velocity 
is constant.—Vesuvian notices (July-December 1898), by G. 
Mercalli. A monthly chronicle, with notes on the paroxysm of 
September, the central crater, and the excentric eruptive appa- 
ratus; illustrated by reproductions of two photographs.—Notices 
of the earthquakes observed in Italy (January 1-February 3, 
1898), by G. Agamennone, the most important being the Ferrara 
earthquake of January 16, a distant earthquake on January 25, 
and the Asia Minor earthquake of January 29. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Royal Society, June 15.—‘‘ Qn the Application of Fourier’s 
Double Integrals to Optical Problems.” By Charles Godfrey, 
B.A. 
The disturbance received at any point from a luminous body 
is a vector, varying with the time. It may be defined by its 
resolved parts along three rectangular axes; let /(2) be one of 
these resolutes. In general /(¢) will not be a periodic function, 
