K.— BOTANY. 217 



least one of our public schools there is a special ' M.B.' Class for preparing 

 boys to take the first M.B. before they leave school. This seems to be an 

 entirely wrong principle and may result in the cramming in of knowledge, 

 or rather of facts, which are not likely to be retained by a mind that is not 

 sufiiciently mature. 



Science should not be looked upon as a task, but as a guiding tendency, 

 for it is only by regarding it in this way that we can expect to produce the 

 men with a true interest in and enthusiasm for scientific research. 



The flowering stage, so to speak, has been achieved before the roots and 

 leaves have developed sufficiently to bear the fruit, and our young plants, 

 raised from seed which may have fallen on stony places, will be found 

 prematurely to wither away. By some, and I expect by many teachers 

 of Biology, I shall be thought hopelessly out-of-date and old-fashioned, 

 but after all one has had the opportunity of seeing the gradual growth and 

 development of the present scholarship system. 



Then again there is a danger of the groundings of science being 

 neglected at the universities, since there is a tendency to assume that 

 the standard of school science teaching is that of the scholarship holder. 

 There are, however, many who turn to science, after they have had the 

 good fortune of receiving a classical education, and I could quote the 

 names of more than one distinguished botanist who only discovered 

 their natural inclination and aptitude was towards Science after they had 

 entered the university. 



I am somewhat encouraged in what I have ventured to say by the 

 following statement made early this year by one of our prominent science 

 masters, in which I fully concur : — ' Any policy which tends to push Bio- 

 logy back into the earlier years as a special subject, endangers both the 

 ultimate value of the Biology itself and the education of the boy.' 



There is no need here for me to emphasise the need for recruits at the 

 present time, this has been done on more than one occasion recently by 

 scientific authorities representing difierent branches of Biological Science. 

 But there is still need to point out that the services which science can render, 

 and for which there is so great a demand, cannot be obtained without 

 making due provision for the cost. 



For the training of men to carry out scientific work in the Colonies 

 valuable provision is now made by the giving of post-graduate Scholarships 

 tenable at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, following 

 on the lines of the similar scheme initiated by the Empire Cotton Growing 

 Corporation, thanks to the wide vision of Sir James Currie. 



The fact that we need more scientific research workers at home and also 

 more posts, adequately endowed for them to occupy, I hope I have made 

 evident, and it is significant that this fact is beginning to be realised by 

 some of our big industries and leading firms. Nevertheless, I feel I cannot 

 do better than quote, in concluding my address, a passage from the very 

 interesting book ' The English Tradition of Education,' by the late Master 

 of my old School, Marlborough College, Dr. Cyril Norwood, now Head 

 Master of Harrow, and formerly the distinguished Head Master of Bristol 

 •Grammar School. Speaking of ' Things that may be,' Dr. Norwood 

 points out : — 



' Agriculture and production in the Dominions, and particularly in the 



