August 23, 1906] 



NA TURE 



4,3.5 



supply of recruits in tlie form of advanced students possess- 

 ing the requisite traininj^ to carry out investigations under 

 direction. And if this be true of the lierbaria, it holds 

 equally in all the branches of knowledge represented in the 

 National Museum. Really I fancy our Museum is rather 

 anomalous in its isolation. In am confident that any 

 understanding or arrangement that might be reached would 

 be attended with great reciprocal advantage. Nor am I 

 speaking without some data before me. The movement 

 towards a closer relation between the museum and the 

 university has already entered the experimental stage. Kor 

 on several occasions during the last few years members 

 of the Museum staff, from more than one department, have 

 given courses of lectures in connection with the university 

 schemes of advanced study. From all I hear, the experi- 

 ment may be regarded as distinctly encouraging. 



Before leaving this subject it may be appropriate to recall 

 that the English edition of Soleredcr's great work on 

 Systematic Plant-anatomy is rapidly approaching comple- 

 tion, and should be available very shortly. Its appearance 

 cannot fail once more to arouse discussion as to the import- 

 ance of anatomical characters. I hope the result produced 

 may reward the devotion and labour with which Mr. L. A. 

 Boodle and Dr. Fritsch have carried out their task. 



In another and even more fundamental branch of system- 

 atic work the future seems brimful of promise. We are 

 beginning to recognise that a vast number of the species 

 of the systematist have no correspondence with the real 

 units of nature, but are to be regarded rather as sub- 

 jective groups or plexuses composed of closely similar 

 units which possess a wide range of overlapping variability. 

 That such might be the case was apparent to Linnaeus, 

 but the proof depends on the application of precise methods 

 of analysis. 



In the year 1870 our great ta.xonomist Bentham happened 

 to meet Nageli at Munich, and, as we find recorded in Mr. 

 Daydon Jackson's interesting life, " had half an hour's 

 conversation with him on his views that in systematic 

 botany it is better to spend years in studying thoroughly 

 two or three species, and thus really to contribute essen- 

 tially to the science, than to review generally floras and 

 groups of species." Bentham does not appear to have 

 been convinced, for his comment runs ; " He is otherwise, 

 evidently, a man of great ability and zeal, and a constant 

 and hard worker." At the time of this interview Bentham 

 was seventy years old, Nageli being seventeen years his 

 junior. The views of the latter are now bearing fruit, as 

 we see in the important results already obtained by 

 De Vries and others, who are following the methods of 

 experimental cultivation with so much success. 



The supposed slowness of change has been a difficulty 

 to many. This was one of the " lions " left by Darwin 

 in the way, and it has driven back many a " Timorous " 

 and " Mistrust." Now, as we are gradually perceiving, 

 it is only a chained lion after all ; a thing to avoid and 

 pass by. The detection of the origin of species and varie- 

 ties by sudden mutation opens out new vistas to the 

 systematist, and along these he will pursue his way. It 

 will take many years of arduous work this reinvestigation 

 of the species question. The collections of our herbaria 

 form the provisional sorting-out from which we must start 

 afresh. In the long run it may be that our present collec- 

 tions will prove obsolete, but that will not deter us. The 

 scrap-heap is the sign and measure of all progress. 



The Garden thus becomes an instrument of supreme 

 importance in conjunction with the herbarium, and that is 

 .-mother reason for the transfer of South Kensington to 

 Kew. The resources of th^ latter could then be directed 

 more fully than ever to the advancement of scientific 

 botany, and the Gardens would be revealed in a new light. 

 For the operations and results of experimental inquiries 

 would form a new feature, very acceptable to the specialist 

 and public alike. And, as 1 am on the subject, it may not 

 be out of place to remark that we all look forward eagerly 

 to the time when the multifarious activities of Kew will 

 permit the development of other features of which traces 

 are already discernible. The arrangement of the living 

 collections is at present based largely on horticultural con- 

 venience, geographic origin and systematic affinilv, happily 

 subordinated to an artistic or decorative treatment. In 

 time we shall go further than that and attempt In soine 



NO. 192 1, VOL. 74] 



degree to reflect current botanical ideas in the grouping of 

 our plants. Let me illustrate my meaning by a good 

 example. The Succulent House is generally conceded to 

 form one of the most interesting and stimulating exhibits 

 to be seen at Kew — not merely from the weird and gro- 

 tesque forms assumed by the individual plants, but chiefly 

 because here you have assembled together plants of the 

 most varied affinity having the common bond of similar 

 adaptations to a like type of environment. The principles 

 that underlie the arrangement of the best sort of museum 

 may be applied with advantage in the case of a garden, 

 and with tenfold effect ; for is not a live dandelion better 

 than a dead VVelwilschia? This feature, introduced as it 

 would be with moderation and discretion, would immensely 

 enhance the value of the Gardens both to the student and 

 general visitor. 



But to return from this digression : on the whole the 

 time seems ripe for the new departure. Fresh lines are 

 opening up in systematic botany that call for special pro- 

 vision. Now it was evident from the circuitistances of the 

 botanical renaissance twenty-five years ago that when it 

 acquired strength some readjustment between the old and 

 the new would have to be made. The thing was inevitable. 

 The administrative acts of recent years all point in the 

 same direction. The founding of the Jodrell Laboratory, 

 the enhanced efficiency of the Gardens, the great extension 

 of the Herbarium building, all help to pave the way. But 

 more is wanted. Reference has been made to the advant- 

 ages that would attend the migration from the Natural 

 History Museum. But it is most important of all to 

 devise a mechanism for securing a flow of recruits to carry 

 on the work. This would follow in the wake of a 

 rapprochement with the schools on the lines alreadv 

 sketched out. Difficulties, no doubt, will be encountered 

 in the initial stages of a reorganisation, but these are 

 inseparable from our bureaucratic system. A very hopeful 

 sign is the readiness which the Government has shown in 

 instituting inquiries in the past. That nothing has come 

 of them may be attributed primarily to the attitude of 

 botanists themselves. If they can unite on any common 

 policy, there should be no serious delay in giving it effect. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 The resignation of Dr. A. E. Dolbear, professor of 

 physics at Tufts College since 1874, is announced. 



Dr. Kuno Fischer has resigned the professorship of 

 philosophy at the University of Heidelberg in consequence 

 of iU-heal'th. 



Sir W.alter L.iwry Buller, F.R.S., has left on trust 

 looo/. to found a Maori scholarship, to be called the 

 Buller scholarship, tenable by Maoris, but not by Europeans 

 or half-castes. 



Dr. A. G. Ruthven, who is at present collecting reptiles 

 and studying their field relations for the American Museum 

 of Natural History, has been appointed curator of the 

 museum of the University of Michigan. 



The Physical Society, Frankfurt a. M., has fitted up 

 an clectrotechnlcal instructional and experimental institu- 

 tion in which young people after finishing their apprentice- 

 ship may go through a further course in order to qualify 

 themselves as works managers, &c. 



Dr. J. K. H. Inglis, of University College, London, 

 has been appointed principal lecturer in chemistry at Uni- 

 versity College, Reading; and Mr. F. J. Cole, of the 

 University of Liverpool, has been appointed principal 

 lecturer in zoology at the same institution. 



Plans are being prepared for a building for operative 

 surgery and experimental pharmacy, and for the new 

 university hospital in connection with the college of 

 medicine and surgery, the University of Minnesota, this 

 having been made possible by the recent bequest by Dr. 

 A. F. Elliott of 3o,ooo(. 



The Austrian Government has sanctioned the granting 

 of the title of " Doktor der Bodenkultur " to be conferred 

 upon those students of the Vienna High School for .Agri- 



