296 
NATURE 
[Marcu 3, 1923 

to biochemistry, and the first floor to the bacterio- 
logical side of plant pathology. The biochemical 
department is well fitted for modern work in bio- 
chemistry and includes, besides a laboratory for 
ordinary class instruction, a large and lofty general 
laboratory, a number of special research laboratories 
and private rooms, a laboratory for physical work, 
a balance room, and a machine room with grinding 
mills, presses, vacuum distillation apparatus, etc. The 
bacteriological laboratories are not only fitted for 
cultural work in microbiology, but also for chemical 
work in relation to fermentation by yeasts, moulds, 
and bacteria. On the first floor there is also to be a 
permanent rubber museum dealing especially with the 
diseases to which Hevea is subject. 
The new building was opened on the afternoon of 
February 16. The ceremony was performed by the 
Duke of Devonshire, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 
Lord Buckmaster (chairman of the governing body) 

Fic. 2.—New botany (plant technology) buildings, Imperial College of Science and Technology. 
Main biochemical laboratory. 
being in the chair. Mr. Herbert Wright, in an intro- 
ductory speech, explained that the development of the 
department was due to the foresight and genius of 
Prof. Farmer, who many years ago realised how much 
could be done for the development of tropical industry 
by men with a proper training in such branches of 
botany as plant pathology and plant physiology. The 
response to the appeal to the Rubber Growers’ Associa- 
tion was so encouraging because the members knew 
that the College had year after year trained men 
qualified to advise on vital problems relating to parasitic 
fungi, insect pests, and other problems of importance to 
tropical estates. The past pupils of the botanical de- 
partment were scattered everywhere in the tropical 
regions of the Empire. 
Prof. Farmer gave a brief survey of the work of the 
department, and stated that the number of students 
had increased from 78 in 1914-15 to 137 in 1922-23, 
a very large proportion of these being research students. 
This increase, together with the development of such 
branches of plant technology as biochemistry and 
bacteriology, had made urgent the further accommoda- 
NO. 2783, VOL. 111] 


tion which the new building now provided. In the 
scientific education of plant technologists for tropical 
regions no attempt was made to give such men any 
detailed knowledge of tropical agriculture ; that could 
only be satisfactorily done on the rubber estate, the. 
sugar plantation, etc. What was aimed at was a 
thorough grounding in the fundamental sciences on 
which plant technology was based. 
The Duke of Devonshire said that it gave him much 
pleasure to come to the College and open the new 
botany building. He well recognised the importance - 
of tropical agriculture. In tropical Africa alone the 
area of the British dependencies was many millions of 
acres, with a population of thirty millions, practically 
all of whom were dependent on agriculture, which 
was, however, at present but imperfectly developed. 
Nothing could more surely contribute to the advance- 
ment of such dependencies than the application of 
science to the many problems of agricultural develop- 
ment. The Colonial Office, in estab- 
lishing the Imperial Bureau of Ento- 
mology and that of Mycology, in 
founding the Imperial Department 
of Agriculture for the West Indies, 
and more recently the College of 
Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad, 
had shown a realisation of the 
importance of science in its appli- 
cation to the problems of the 
development of the agricultural 
resources of the Colonies. 
A vote of thanks to the Duke of 
Devonshire was proposed by Sir 
Frank Swettenham (chairman of 
the Rubber Growers’ Association) 
and was seconded by Sir Arthur 
Dyke Acland. 
In connexion with the opening 
ments and preparations illustrative 
of plant physiology and pathology 
were on view. One set of exhibits, 
which will form a permanent series, 
was arranged to show the diseases 
to which the rubber plantations are liable. It con- 
tained many large specimens 
procured by skilled men and shipped direct from 
the plantations. It is safe to say that it forms the 
most complete exhibition of its kind that has. ever 
_ been seen in Europe, and there is no doubt that it 
will be of considerable service to the new depart- 
ment for teaching purposes. Characteristic specimens 
of the obscure and much-dreaded disease, brown 
bast of rubber, were also displayed. The methods 
of investigating diseases were illustrated, and a large 
series of cultures of bacteria, fungi, and yeasts were 
on view. 
i 
+ Ng 
ceremony a large number of experi- — 
a a 
which have been — 
a 
A number of exhibits of physiological apparatus 
were also to be seen. These took the form mainly of 
instruments which recorded automatically (usually by 
an electrical device) the rate of some important vital 
process of the plant, such as growth, transpiration, 
change in the size of the pores (stomata) of the leaf, 
and so on. An apparatus for enriching with carbon 
dioxide at constant partial pressure the air supplied 
to growing plants was also included. 
