52 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. ToL. XXX. No. 758 



rare survivor of the postglacial flora, is pre- 

 served and protected in the vicinity of Ham- 

 burg. A considerable area of forest near 

 Miinster is protected because of its profusion 

 in certain rare species of lichens. In Schles- 

 wig a great glacial boulder resting on a low 

 knoll has been set aside, the ground immedi- 

 ately about it acquired and a road laid out to 

 it. In Brandenburg a little lake with its 

 swamp, the Plage, has been reserved on ac- 

 count of its botanic interest and in Marien- 

 werder a bit of lake and woods where rare 

 water birds nest. A local society in Gotha 

 has acquired a small pond and swamp and has 

 transferred to it rare plants threatened with 

 extinction and has also introduced new plants 

 foreign to the region, such as our common 

 Sarratenia or Pitcher-plant. Such results as 

 these have been attained largely through the 

 activity of local societies and are the outcome 

 of local pride and intelligent appreciation, but 

 Prussia has an official duly appointed by the 

 Cultus Minister as State Commissioner for 

 the Care of Natural Monuments, Dr. H. Con- 

 wentz, director of the Provincial Museum at 

 Danzig, and through his activity aided by the 

 official forestry organization, much has been 

 possible which would be more difficult here 

 without such aid. The methods employed by 

 Dr. Conwentz have enlisted a more than local 

 interest and the Cambridge Press has recently 

 published his address on his work delivered by 

 request before the British Association last 

 year. 



It is not likely that any American state will 

 very soon accord recognition to this movement 

 by following the example of Prussia in desig- 

 nating an official as its apostle to arouse local 

 loyalty and supervise such conservation but 

 the whole matter, it would seem, might with 

 entire propriety be embraced within the scope 

 of the national conservation movement whose 

 official support could be so enlisted and so 

 delegated as to efficiently enforce the subject 

 on public and local attention and even on 

 private munificence. I am not aware that the 

 functions of the National Conservation Com- 

 mission are so restricted as to restrain it from 



taking cognizance of this growing favorable 

 sentiment toward such conservation as I have 

 indicated and if such authority may properly 

 be assumed by it, it would be no difficult mat- 

 ter to find some active spirit in each state to 

 whom the moral and official support of the 

 commission might be given in the furtherance 

 of so laudable an undertaking. 



John M. Clarke, 

 Director, Science Division 

 AtBANT, N. Y., 

 June 16, 1909 



THE DARWIN CENTENARY AT CAMBRIDGE' 

 The Darwin celebration, which began on 

 June 22, is a remarkable event in university 

 annals. Commemorative festivals, held at 

 one or other ancient seat of learning, have 

 been frequent in recent years; but their object 

 has been to celebrate the foundation of some 

 famous institution in the distant past. And 

 there have been festivals of a difierent kind in 

 honor of one or other of the great names on 

 the roll of intellectual achieyement, whose 

 glory has been established and consecrated by 

 the long lapse of time. But no such academic 

 tribute as the present festival has ever been- 

 paid to the memory of an individual within- 

 so short a time of his own life. 



The great and ancient University of Cam- 

 bridge is devoting three days to it, and the 

 whole learned world from Chile to Japan is 

 joining in homage to the memory of an Eng- 

 lishman who was with us but the other day. 

 Some of those who will be present were his 

 comrades, most of them have been in some 

 measure his working contemporaries. Two 

 hundred and thirty-five universities, acad- 

 emies and learned bodies at home and abroad 

 have nominated delegates to represent them; 

 and of these 16Y are situated in foreign coun- 

 tries and British dominions outside the United' 

 Kingdom. Thirty of the most famous insti- 

 tutions in Germany, thirt.y in the United' 

 States, fourteen in Prance, ten in Austria- 

 Hungary, eight in Italy, as many in Sweden, 

 seven in Russia and lesser numbers in seven 

 other foreign countries have honored the occa- 

 sion by naming some of their most distin- 

 ' From the London Tim es. 



