NATURE 



[May 6, i8So 



Institution that in presence of uiic acid it crystallises in ocfa- 

 hedra. There are other similar facts : thus alum usually crystal- 

 lises in octii/ueirn ; but if sulphate of alumina is present in excess 

 the alum crystallises in (Tuks.] 



The Songs of Birds. — In Tennant's "British Zoology," 

 vol. ii., Mr. C. C. Starling v.\\l find in an appendi.\ a very 

 interesting paper by the Hon. Daines Barrirgton on th; sinjin" 

 of birds. The paper is dated 1773, and published in the I'/'ii/j- 

 s-phical Transactions, vol. Ixiii. — James Macfadzean. 



DECAISNE AXD BAILLON ' 

 T T is perhaps now time to make a protest against a 

 ^ scandal which has in no small degree excited the 

 disgust of scientific men in various parts of Europe, who, 

 like ourselves, have been favonred with copies of the 

 privately-circulated publication of ^Thich the name stands 

 at the foot of this note. That scientific men should 

 quarrel, and quarrel sometimes with singular bitterness, 

 is only to affirm in other terms that they are not exempt 

 from the ordinary frailties of human nature. That they 

 should make blunders in their work, however conscien- 

 tiously performed, is but another illustration of the same 

 truth. But that a scientific man with any respect for 

 his calling should not merely think it worth while to 

 publish the errors of one who has long laboured, and 

 on the whole laboured not ingloriously, under the same 

 roofas himself, and in the same pursuits, and should 

 persist in the unhandsome enterprise of seeking out 

 and raking together faults, even the most microscopic and 

 frivolous, with all the relish and vindictiveness of gratified 

 spite, is a thing so wholly disgusting that a protest should 

 be made against it in the interest of common decency. 

 Decaisne has spent a laborious life in botanical work of 

 great usefulness and excellence, and his scientific reputa- 

 tion has long; been established and acknowledged by his 

 contemporaries, who have been quite capable of estimating 

 the value of what he has done. Baillon, a much younger 

 rnan, is scarcely less regarded for the industrious profu- 

 sion and frequent originality of his botanical publications. 

 But he will not materially affect the position of Decaisne 

 by his animadversions, and it is pitiful that any portion 

 of his abounding energy should be devoted to the attempt 

 to discredit writings which, after all, will always be 

 consulted by students on their own merits, and having 

 regard to the state of knowledge at the time they were 

 published. The fact is that no scientific man could 

 undergo with credit such a scathing revision as that to 

 which Baillon has subjected his unfortunate fellow- 

 savanf, and we do not say without some reason that the 

 last person who w-ould emerge from the process with 

 anything like satisfaction would be Prof. Baillon himself. 



DR. RUDOLF SCHEFFER 

 T T is with sincere regret that we have to record the sudden 

 -■■ death of Dr. Rudolf H. C. C. Scheffer, the director 

 of the Botanical Gardens, Buitenzorg, Java, which took 

 place at Sindanglaya on March 9. The loss of Dr. 

 Schefier will be felt by a large circle of botanists through- 

 out the world, for the splendid gardens of which he was 

 superintendent were in communication with every home 

 and colonial botanical institution ; but in the Netherlands 

 Indian Colonies, however, it is that his death will be 

 most felt and deplored. 



It is now some twelve years since Dr. Schefier came 

 out from Holland to take the first directorship of the 

 gardens, which had come into high repute by the great 

 number and variety of species collected into it by numerous 

 eminent botanists and by the energy and zeal of its well- 

 known horlulanus, J. E. Teysmann, who has by his 

 numerous voyages added so many new species to the 



» "Etronim Decaiineanorum graviorum vel minus cognitorum ccnluria 

 qu:nta, Auctore H. Baillcn." 



East Indian llora, and on the fiftieth anniversary of whose 

 uninterrupted connection with the gardens Dr. Schefier 

 took so warm and active a part last January. Soon 

 after his arrival Dr. Scheffer instituted a school for 

 the framing of native boys in the science of agriculture ; 

 and for their practical instruction he was the means of 

 having an agricultural garden opened at Zjikoemah, 

 close to the school, and some two miles from Buitenzorg. 

 In this school Dr. Scheffer took the very highest interest 

 and pleasure. It was not intended, on its institution, that 

 he should take any active teaching duties, his superin- 

 tendence was considered to be all that he coulci well 

 bestow on it ; but finding that the teaching start" was 

 insufficient, he squeezed out of his already overburdened 

 time several hours every day to devote to the tuition of 

 these native boys. When on February 9, on his departure 

 on a botanical journey to the south coast of Java, the 

 writer, little thinking he was saying farewell for the last 

 time, took leave of Dr. Schefier, seemingly in his ordinary 

 health, he received from him, to aid him in his work, a 

 native boy who had lately taken his diploma of proficiency 

 in the agricultural school. This boy was found to be 

 well acquainted with the general flora of the district and 

 with the classification of plants ; he could accurately 

 describe their organs and functions and state their 

 economic uses ; he had a good idea of the methods ot 

 fertilisation and the values of self- and cross-breeding. 

 He was fairly grounded in the rudiments of zoology, 

 anatomy, and physiology. Until he had tested this youth 

 the writer did not believe it possible for the Malay mind 

 to so clearly comprehend and so accurately to arrange 

 scientific facts. In this the great power of Dr. Schefier 

 as a teacher appears, especially when it is remembered 

 that he lectured almost to virgin minds and in a language 

 so devoid of all precise and accurate terms as Malay. I 

 am told by a friend, a competent botanist, who has 

 listened to his lectures, that Dr. Schefter's power of lucid 

 explanation was very great. " I wish," he said, " I had 

 had as good a course of lectures on botany in Holland." 



In addition to the labour and anxiety attaching to this 

 section of his work. Dr. Scheffer had also to give occa- 

 sional lectures to the aspira.it coittrolhnrs, the young 

 unplaced civil servants, and to superintend their examina- 

 tions in agriculture. Over and above this he had the 

 general superintendence of the large botanical gardens- 

 on his shoulders, with daily arrivals and despatches of 

 plants to and from all cjuarters of the globe, on which 

 he had to be consulted daily. If one had entered 

 his small study in the fine building containing the 

 herbarium, one would have found him engaged in his own 

 peculiar work, in which betook so much delight, with his 

 microscope and camera lucida studying the Hoiickia 

 vastatrix, a subject to which he had been lately devoting 

 much time ; in another corner would be a series of Palms 

 — part of Dr. Beccari's collection, on whose examination 

 and description he was engaged, the sectional coloined 

 drawings being done by one of his own native pupils. If 

 we did not find him here we should see the microscope 

 and pencil conveniently left so as to resume work at the 

 shortest possible notice ; and adjourning to his house^ 

 near the entrance to the gardens, we should certainly find 

 him in his neat library surrounded by a diverse collection- 

 of botanical works, and with the spare corners decorated 

 with the busts and photographs of distinguished botanists, 

 with an enormous pile of correspondence, to which he 

 was w-riting heads of reply in Dutch, French, English, 

 German, for his amanuensis. Dr. Schefier told the 

 writer that he wrote more than 3,000 letters a year with 

 his own hand. He corresponded with every country and 

 every botanical garden in the world ; he had to give all 

 sorts of advice to agriculturists throughout the Archipelago, 

 on the cultivation of or the diseases alTccting coffee, tea, 

 sugar, tobacco, &c., and the many great improvements 

 effected in the production of these valuable produ;ts is 



