Feb. 1 8, 1 8 75 J 



NATURE 



III 



asserts that material wealth is necessarily associated 

 with the decadence of intellectual vigour, or of the sense 

 of moral responsibility. What the Roman poet said of 

 the Augustan time, ' Aetas parentum pejor avis tulit nos 

 nequiores, mox dituros progeniem vitiosiorem,' cannot 

 with truth be said of our age and country. . . . 



" Our funds will of necessity be limited at first, and it 

 will hardly be in our power for some time to come to 

 procure for our subscribers regular courses of lectures 

 either in literature or science. Nor, indeed, do I think 

 that the ordinary popular lectures are on the whole of any 

 permanent value beyond the intellectual excitement which 

 they produce. Their tendency in too many instances is 

 rather to discourage than to promote study. When we 

 have witnessed the brilliant experiments and listened to 

 the luminous expositions of a Tyndall on light or mag- 

 netism, we are too apt to imagine we have carried away 

 the solid instruction in those sciences which is in fact 

 only to be acquired by close and persevering application. 

 And this applies equally to literature, as those amongst 

 us who were charmed by the acute criticism and pungent 

 satire of Thackeray in his day will scarcely fail to admit. 

 I believe that we should do more good by having, in each 

 of our sessions, one or two lectures by eminent men, 

 setting forth the objects and boundaries of some great 

 branch of literature or of science, and the best method of 

 cultivating it. Such lectures would do as much as popular 

 courses to awaken the interest of those hitherto unac- 

 quainted with the subject treated, and would stimulate 

 them to private study ; whilst they would be of greater 

 value to those who have already some familiarity with it 

 by enabling them to keep abreast of the most advanced 

 knowledge of the day and directing them to lines of in- 

 quiry by following which they themselves may possibly 

 extend its boundaries. . . . 



" As an example of how little the theory of force is 

 apprehended even in its most rudimentary form, by 

 persons who have received a liberal education, I may 

 mention the case of a landowner and member of one of 

 the learned professions, who not long since consulted me 

 about his barn machinery. He suggested water as the 

 motive power, and, when I asked him how he would 

 obtain the necessary fall, gravely proposed to raise the 

 water from a canal at the foot of his homestead, by the 

 very machinery which that water was to set in motion. 



" It is probable that one or more of our distinguished 

 members, on whose support we have to congratulate our- 

 selves, will have the kindness to give us instruction of the 

 highest grade in their special subjects ; but there is 

 probably not one of us who could not, by working steadily 

 at some subject in which he takes an interest, and by a 

 simple relation of the result of his studies and observa- 

 tions, contribute to our entertainment as well as add to 

 our knowledge. It is one of the advantages of residence 

 in the country, that it affords so many opportunities for 

 the study of the natural history of animated life. The 

 example of Sir John Lubbock's exquisite monograph on 

 the fructification of flowers, composed in his leisure 

 moments by a man immersed in public and private 

 business, as well as occupied by the special pursuits to 

 which he owes his scientific reputation, shows how much 

 may be done in this way. . . . 



'• Our holiday tours also, whether at home or abroad, if 

 we note carefully and relate simply what we have seen, 

 will give us endless subjects for papers on ethnology, 

 social and political economy, and archaeology. . . . 



" The establishment of a Museum is one of the objects 

 contemplated by the gentlemen to whom we are indebted 

 for the existence of our society, and there can be no doubt 

 of the value of such an institution, even if it should not 

 attempt anything beyond the collection of miscellaneous 

 objects illustrative of natural history, and of that of our 

 race and country. I remember well that when I was a 

 child, the sight of a provincial collection of armour, of 



coins, and of other objects of daily use belonging to a 

 period so recent as that of the Commonwealth and the 

 Restoration, first enabled me to form a conception of 

 history as of a reality instead of a dream." 



THE EDINBURGH BOTANICAL SOCIETY* 



'X*HE Botanical Society of Edinburgh numbers more 

 -*- than 500 members. Moreover, the Botanical Class 

 of the University of Edinburgh is the largest in the 

 three kingdoms ; the number of pupils which attended it 

 in the year 1874 was 354. We might reasonably expect, 

 therefore, to find in the "Transactions" of the Society 

 some evidence of the existence, in an environment appa- 

 rently so favourable, of a flourishing school of botanical 

 investigation. After, however, examining the present num- 

 ber with some care, it is impossible to avoid feeling con- 

 siderable disappointment. To speak the truth, a great 

 part of its contents might have been sufficiently gratifying 

 to those concerned if printed in some local periodical, 

 but they are quite unworthy of that more formal and 

 wider circulation which they necessarily aim at by their 

 present mode of publication. The valedictory address of 

 the president, Mr. J. M'Nab, is mainly occupied with 

 a discussion (but apart from any meteorological data) 

 of the deterioration of the climate of Scotland, which 

 it is well known he believes to have taken place. 

 Amongst other facts which he adduces in support of it, 

 is the present scarcity in Scotland of mushrooms ! He 

 takes occasion to point out that though the British 

 climate is unsuitable for many plants such as Rliododcn- 

 droii arboreum, their hybridised descendants are able to 

 represent them in our gardens. It is, however, by no 

 means certain that Bryanthus crectiis is, as the president 

 stated, a hybrid between Menziesia cmpctriformis and 

 Rhodothamnus chamcecistus ; on the contrary, it appears 

 to be identical with a form of the former species. — Mr. 

 A. S.Wilson continues his remarks on Loliiiiit tcmiilt-ntum, 

 the seeds of which have long been believed to be poisonous, 

 and an exception to the general rule amongst grasses. 

 Tlie poisonous qualities of Loliiiin tcmuh-ntuin are attri- 

 buted, no doubt correctly, to the ergot, with which it is 

 often infected. After separating the ergotised grains, Mr. 

 Wilson made cakes of darnel meal, which he ate without 

 experiencing any ill effects. It is mentioned inter aha 

 (p. 49) that the first Swedish turnips raised in Britain were 

 grown at Perth, in 1772, from seed sent by Linnajus, 

 Rather unexpectedly in a botanical publication we come 

 further on upon an account of a dredging expedition, 

 headed by Prof. Cams, in Lamlash Bay. — Mr. J. F. Duthie 

 gives a long account of botanical excursions near the 

 Bnths of Lucca ; except as an extract from the journal of 

 an ardent collecting botanist, it has no points of interest. 



i\Ir. A. S. Wilson writes on the fertilisation of cereals, 

 in which he holds, against most authorities, that wheat, 

 barley, and oats are not wind-iertilised, but are self-ferti- 

 lised before the anthers are expanded. In rye, on the 

 other hand, his experiments led him to the belief that 

 56 per cent, of the florets are fertilised by the agency of 

 the wind. There are some things in his paper to which 

 exception might be taken. Thus (p. 95), speaking of the 

 embryo (ovule ?) of rye, he says it " may more properly be 

 regarded as a cellular mass capable of evolving fifty 

 embryos, one of which takes the lead in the ovary," &c, 

 Mr. M'Nab, in a paper on " Climatal Changes in Scotland," 

 reiterates his view already alluded to ; while the annual 

 temperature remains the same, he believes the summers 

 to be cooler. 



Dr. Stewart's list of the principal trees and shrubs of 

 Northern India takes up nearly forty pages. It is a 

 posthumous pubhcation, and its precise usefulness is by 



♦ Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh 

 vol. xh. part i. 



