530 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1275 



I quite believe in the sudden development of the 

 mass of phanerogams being due to the introduction 

 of flower-feeding insects. 



While fully alive to tlie importance of lab- 

 oratory researches, Hooker felt that nothing 

 could take the place of a knowledge of the 

 various kinds of plants in nature; and that 

 after all, the whole was, in a sense, greater 

 than its parts. In 1886 he writes to Asa 

 Gray: 



I am more and more absorbed in Indian botany, 

 and have thrown aside all idea of making headway 

 with — any desire to keep up with even — ^heads of 

 ehemico-botany, and microphytology. I may con- 

 tent myself with a casual grin at young men call- 

 ing themselves botanists, who know notMng of 

 plants, but the "innards" of a score or so. The 

 pendulum will swing round, or rather back, one 

 day. 



In 1894 he recurs to the same subject, and 

 writes to Francis Darwin: 



I am glad you are going to teach the medicos a 

 little practical botany. It is lamentable to find 

 that all this botanical teaching of the greatest 

 universities in England and Scotland does not turn 

 out a single man who can turn his botanical knowl- 

 edge to any use whatever to his fellow creatures. 

 Where should we be if medicine, law or any other 

 pursuit were taught after that fashion? 



In his general ideas of education, he was 

 "modern" in the sense of desiring practical 

 vocational training; and in his indignation 

 against the claims of the classicists. But he 

 seems to have had little or no vision of an 

 educated democracy, nor indeed of democracy 

 in any form. He greatly admired certain 

 characteristics of the Americans, writing to 

 Asa Gray as early as 1854: 



When you Yankees take up the higher branches 

 of botany more generally you will turn out far 

 more and better work than we do, for you are a 

 fax better educated, sounder, more practical peo- 

 ple, and I look to you for the greatest discoveries, 

 come when they may. 



And in 1877, after traveling across the 

 United States with Asa Gray, he wrote : 



I had not the ghost of an adventure in America, 

 where I saw a prodigious deal and learnt much. 



California was burnt up with nine months' 

 drought, which obliterated the herbaceous vegeta- 

 tion and allowed me full time for the arboreous 

 and fruticose. I was charmed with New England, 

 disappointed with the Eocky Mountains as a range, 

 and have no love for California, but all are full of 

 great interest, and wonderful resources. Niagara 

 did not disappoint me nor did the big trees. . . . 

 The people I found to be wonderfully nice, and A. 

 Gray is a trump in aU senses. 



The following, to W. E. Darwin in 1893, is 

 singularly pertinent to-day: 



I am dreamer enough to look for a time when 

 America will forbid a European war! What a 

 splendid r6le this would be for a nation to under- 

 take — ^to send us all to our tents and tell us that 

 we may snarl at one another in the length and 

 breadth of Europe as much as we please, but noth- 

 ing more, and that if we go further she will inter- 

 vene. 



Here we may leave this fascinating record 

 of opinions and events, having quoted freely, 

 but scarcely more than touched the treasures 

 it contains. To have read it, following Hooker 

 to the Antarctic, the Himalayas, the Atlas 

 mountains and America ; visiting him through 

 it at Kew and at his home ; all this is siifficient 

 to stir the imagination and ambition of the 

 most lethargic if he cares anything for science. 

 The book should be in all public libraries ; and 

 it is permissible to hope that eventually a 

 cheaper edition, perhaps somewhat abbreviated, 

 may further widen the circle of its influence. 

 t. d. a. cockerell 

 University of Coloeabo 



A SUGGESTION FROM PLATO, WITH 

 OTHERS 



Students of human embryology, obstetri- 

 cians and gynecologists are in daily need of 

 terms to designate the various things included 

 in an abortion. Many also realize the need 

 for a more consistent use of such old words as 

 embryonic and ovum. The word ovum con- 

 stantly is used in contemporary medical litera- 

 ture to designate the unfertilized female sex 

 cell; this cell when fertilized, the chorionic 

 and anmionic vesicles with or without the con- 

 tained embryo, and even the later product of 

 conception. Under such circumstances confu- 



