July 6, 1905J 



NA TURE 



removal of fish from the water by the most effective 

 means if fish are wanted, and by the most pleasant 

 if amusement is our aim or if the waters hold few fish. 

 We recall a schoolboy who fished for loaches with a 

 gentle if he wanted loaches, but used a kitchen fork 

 tied to the end of a stick if he wanted sport, and we 

 have known others who rose superior to adverse 

 circumstances, one who found all he wanted with a 

 fly rod and small dace on the Cambridge Backs and 

 another who could glory in the capture of eels with a 

 gaff in the same unpromising water. 



Mr. Sherringham has not withdrawn the veil that 

 shrouds his early exploits, and he may have been more 

 orthodox; but now he despairs of nothing, but finds 

 good in all; if there are no fish he can study nature, 

 and if there is no water he can shrewdly meditate on 

 the ways of fish and men ; an hour with him and his 

 rod by a troutless tarn is as good as an hour by the 

 Kennet in the mayfly time. We will not attempt to 

 cull passages and quote them, or to draw invidious 

 distinctions between one essay and another, but will 

 leave each idle angler to do this for himself, with a 

 candid admission that our own hours with Mr. Sher- 

 ringham were all pleasant and instructive, but we 

 should like more of them. A word of praise is also 

 due to the publishers, who have produced a book the 

 size and print of which add to its convenience as an 

 adjunct to a pipe, an easy chair, and idleness. 



L. W. B. 



Botany of Cook's First ]'oyagc. Illustrations of 

 Australian Plants. By Sir Joseph Banks, P.R.S., 

 and Dr. D. Solander, F.R.S. Part iii. Pp. iv + 25; 

 with 75 plates. (Trustees of the British Museum, 

 1905.) Price 25s. 

 Inasmuch as Solander was a pupil of Linnaeus, this 

 work furnishes a link with the founder of systematic 

 botany, and it is known that Linnaeus himself looked 

 forward with great anticipation to the publication of 

 the results of the collections made on this the first 

 voyage of Captain Cook. The expectation was not 

 fulfilled, and although certain of Solander's original 

 descriptions were transcribed for sending to press, the 

 MS. on Australian plants did not even reach this 

 stage. A draughtsman, Sydney Parkinson, accom- 

 panied the expedition and executed a number of draw- 

 ings, of which less than a third were finished for 

 engraving purposes. Parkinson died on the voyage 

 home, and other artists continued the work. The 

 specimens and drawings were available, and were 

 consulted by Gaertner and Sir Joseph Hooker, but 

 unfortunately Bentham failed to do so when com- 

 piling his " Flora Australiensis." Possiblv Banks 

 was responsible for some of the work, but the text is 

 taken from a MS. bv Solander, and this is repro- 

 duced with brief notes and determinations by Mr. 

 J. Britten, who has also written the interesting" intro- 

 duction printed with this part. In the notices of the 

 earlier parts reference was made to some of the 

 generic names, and, at a time when the rules of 

 nomenclature are being discussed, it is appropriate 

 to instance the name Banksia, that the majority of 

 botanists associate with a genus of the order Pro- 

 teace», whereas Mr. Britten, in accordance with his 

 views, adopts Isostylis, and refers Banksia to the 

 genus of the order Thymelaceae, otherw-ise known 

 as Pimelea. This is merely quoted as an illustration 

 of the confusion of names which renders it most 

 desirable that a uniform system should be universally 

 adopted. The present volume, with the two preceding 

 parts, completes the Australian plants, and for this 

 worthy tribute to the authors botany is indebted to 

 Mr. Britten for his careful revision and to the British 

 Museum for the production. 



NO. 1862, VOL. 72] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond witli the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



Education in Belgium and Holland. 



During a recent cycling tour in parts of Belgium and 

 Holland, as well as during the outward and homeward 

 voyages on a Dutch trading steamer plying between a 

 neighbouring Cornish port and .'\msterdam and .\ntwerp, 

 I have been greatly struck by several examples of the 

 apparent educational superiority of Holland and Belgium 

 over our own country, and at the present moment these 

 examples may not be without interest to your readers. 



(i) We were staying at a little inn near Dinant, in 

 Belgium, and our hostess, seeing us occupied in drying 

 some botanical specimens, brought us the herbarium of 

 her son, a boy of about thirteen. These specimens were 

 admirably dried and mounted, and were labelled with 

 details concerning the characters of the order, &c., in 

 such wise as to constitute a valuable educational asset. 

 On inquiry, we found that the lad was a pupil at the 

 lyc^e of Dinant, and that botany was a compulsory sub- 

 ject there, although the lad had not yet reached the stage 

 of learning foreign languages. The boy himself was so 

 bright and intelligent, and so brimful of enthusiasm for 

 botany, that we at once supposed him to be exceptionally 

 intelligent ; but some old friends of the family informed 

 us that until a year ago he was shy and " lumpish," and 

 that the transformation had been effected by the lyc^e. 

 Commend me to such schools ! 



(2) The skipper of the Dutch steamer on which we re- 

 turned told me that in the elementary schools of Amster- 

 dam the children are taken at intervals to the " Zoo 

 to receive object-lessons on the animals about which they 

 read at school, and on other occasions are taken into the 

 fields to receive object-lessons on the wild flowers ; and 

 what struck me especially was that this " mere sailor 

 — this skipper of a tramp steamer — fully appreciated the 

 value of such practical instruction as giving an interest 

 and sense of reality to his children's school-work. It was 

 also rather surprising to hear such a man express the 

 opinion that a little knowledge of astronomy rendered 

 certain theological doctrines impossible of belief. 



(3) The skipper of the outgoing Dutch steamer ex- 

 plained to me that the standard for mates' and masters' 

 certificates in the Dvitch mercantile marine is higher 

 than in ours, there being three stages of mates' certifi- 

 cates instead of our two, and that before taking out a 

 master's certificate it is necessary to attend a course of 

 simple medical instruction for some months — surely a very 

 reasonable regulation. On the subject of Englishmen's 

 usual inability to speak a foreign language, he opined that 

 this inability was due to our laziness — not realising, prob- 

 ably, the absurdities of our traditional school system. 



(4) The second mate of one of these steamers — a rough 

 lad of twenty-one — seeing me reading a volume of verse 

 in a well known " series " with distinctive binding, asked 

 me if I knew a book like that with Longfellow's poetry, 

 for he had it at home and liked it ! I cannot imagine 

 an Englishman of the same age and status knowing a 

 poet even in his own language, much less a foreign 

 poet. 



I must not occupy your space by drawing from these 

 facts the moral that is obvious enough, but will conclude 

 with two statements on which it is not pleasant to reflect. 

 These Dutch steamers have driven out a line of English 

 steamers which formerly traded between Fowey and Ant- 

 werp, and now practically monopolise the china-clay 

 trade between these two ports ; and of the total crews of 

 forty-one carried by the two boats mentioned above, thirty- 

 nine were Dutchmen and two were Germans from the 

 Dutch border, whereas everyone knows that on English 

 vessels often only a small minority of the crew are English. 

 Are such results surprising? F. H. Perrv-Coste. 



Polperro, Cornwall, June 22. 



