May 15, 1902] 
NATURE 
61 
small amateur who is induced to experiment will surely 
find himself in trouble. 
In the chapter “Orchid Names,” the author follows 
the popular lead by finding fault with the existing orchid 
nomenclature, and with the inevitable result that he is 
unable even to hint at a better method than that for 
which we have to thank a long line of patient and clever 
men who have been working on the subject in all ages 
since the classification of plants began. It should be 
remembered that the question is not as to whether the 
name is good or bad Latin or Greek, expressive or not 
expressive, but that it is intended as a means of identi- 
fying the plant in every civilised quarter of the globe, an 
end which no system of popular names could accomplish, 
but which has worked under the present system of 
scientific names in a marvellously satisfactory manner. 
To apply it to his own case. Deprived of the scientific 
names he finds fault with, Mr. Boyle’s book would have 
been impossible in its present useful form. : 
Orchid culture cannot be reduced to an exact science. 
Each operator has to adapt his methods to his con- 
venience, but in order to know how to meet his difficulties 
and to overcome them, Mr. Boyle’s book will be found in- 
valuable. In some cases the prices at which the plants 
may be obtained are also given. 
THE ROVAL VISIT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF 
WALES. 
(MES installation of the Prince of Wales as the second 
Royal Chancellor of the University of Wales is 
associated with an important epoch in the develop- 
ment of university education in North Wales. When 
the University College of North Wales was founded in 
1884, it would have been difficult to find a more ideal 
situation for a centre of university education than the 
Penrhyn Arms Hotel at Bangor, which possessed ample 
accommodation for existing requirements. But eighteen 
years ago, Hertz’s realisations of Maxwell’s theory of 
electric oscillations, culminating in wireless telegraphy, 
did not exist; the existence of R6ontgen and other 
rays had not been anticipated; no argon was known 
to exist in our atmosphere, no helium in our earth ; 
the liquefaction of the more permanent gases was 
regarded as a mere classical experiment, impossible on a 
large scale; even in mathematics, the fertile theory of 
groups was almost untrodden ground. Taking also into 
account the increase in the number of students in the 
eighteen years from 55 to 320, it is small wonder 
that new buildings with more modern equipments have 
now become indispensable for the further progress of the 
College. These needs bid fair to be soon met by the 
recent generous gift on the part of the City of Bangor of 
a new plot of ground 10°6 acres in extent, about 66 acres 
of which are available for building purposes, on a site 
which, in the opinion expressed by Principal Reichel, 
“any university College in the kingdom might well envy.” 
This gift represents, for the City of Bangor, the equi- 
valent of a gift of one million pounds from the citizens of 
a wealthy town comparable with Liverpool. 
The smallness of the population of Bangor and the 
absence of the large wealth-producing industries of our 
midland towns are a sufficient guarantee that the new 
College need never fear the disturbing influences of 
electric trams and the smoke and din of factories which 
have afforded such an obstacle to scientific research in 
wealthy and thickly populated manufacturing centres. 
The University congregation was held, not at Bangor, 
but at Carnarvon, where the large pavilion had been 
transformed into a senate house. The lavish display 
of bunting at Carnarvon and subsequently at Bangor ; 
the gowns and hoods of graduates, extending over 
the whole range of colours from violet to red, and the 
NO. 1698, VOL. 66] 
presence of large contingents of students from Aberyst- 
wyth, Bangor and Cardiff, including a considerable pro- 
portion of “sweet girl undergraduates” in caps and 
gowns, all contributed to the festivity of the scene. Even 
the mountain ranges of Snowdonia were clad in white 
hoods of snow rarely seen in May. The actual installa- 
tion ceremony having been completed by the presentation 
of the key of the University seal and a copy of the 
statutes to the Prince as Chancellor, addresses were read 
by Dr. Isambard Owen and Principal Roberts on behalf 
of the University court and senate, and addresses were 
also presented or read on behalf of several other bodies, 
including the guild of graduates. The Prince in reply, 
after referring to the work done by teachers and students 
of the Welsh University, laid special stress on the en- 
couragement given to post-graduate and scientific work, 
and the fact that it is by the work done in after life by its 
graduates that the reputation of a university is really 
made. The Chancellor then admitted the Princess of 
Wales to an honorary degree in music and proceeded to 
the conferment of honorary degrees, in which science 
was represented by the Earl of Rosse, the recipients 
being presented by Vice-Chancellor Roberts, of Aberyst- 
wyth. The intervals in the proceedings were filled by 
part songs sung by a well-trained choir, and at the conclu- 
sion the problem of transporting the guests to Bangor was 
solved with remarkable success.. Here luncheon was 
laid for six hundred and fifty in a marquee pitched close 
to the new site, under the chairmanship of Lord Kenyon. 
In his speech, the Prince of Wales once more struck a 
chord which he had already sounded at the National 
Physical Laboratory in referring to his recent tour and 
his experience of the work done in universities across the 
seas in bringing intellectual ability to the front and 
rendering it available for the public service. This line 
of thought was ably echoed by Principal Reichel in his 
remarks that ‘‘ The idea, which at one time was not un- 
common, that intellectual training is unfavourable to 
action is now happily becoming discredited at home ; on 
the Continent it has long ago perished... . The function 
of provincial university colleges is, in short, to train up a 
more vigorous and efficient race, fitted to meet the heavy 
demands which the course of world events is making on 
the inhabitants of these islands, a race of more efficient 
thinkers, of more efficient workers, and if the necessity 
should arise, of more efficient fighters.” Principal Reichel 
further announced the receipt of an offer of twelve 
scholarships of 30/. for three years from Sir Alfred L. 
Jones, of Liverpool. It was also announced that the town 
of Cardiff, like Bangor, has presented its University 
College with a new site. 
The next item was the visit of the Prince and Princess 
to the present College, where a guard of honour was 
formed by the College volunteer corps. Interest naturally 
centred round the museums and laboratories. The 
College possesses a very fair zoological museum, and it is 
proposed to establish in connection with the same 
department a marine station where problems connected 
with the fisheries of the North Wales coast can be studied 
systematically. Already efforts have been made to arouse 
interest in the fishing industry by popular lectures. Most 
of the work of the College in agriculture has been hitherto 
carried on at a farm right away near Llangefni, but the 
College is now indebted to Colonel Platt for an experi- 
mental farm in a much more accessible situation near 
Llanfairfechan. Of other recent developments on the 
science side, we note the Drapers’ Company’s temporary 
endowment of a school of electrical engineering, a school 
which is bound to develop when a university training is, 
as it should be, insisted on in this country as an indis- 
pensable qualification for every electric engineer. The 
organisation of a department of mining is also, thanks 
to the support of local bodies, approaching completion. 
A recent gift from Mr. George Rae for the purpose of 
