SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 27. 



opportunities for instruction which the Gar- 

 den will afford, Bronx Park will be a con- 

 stant delight. But far beyond these limits, 

 wide as they are, the Garden will exert a 

 profound and beneficial influence. Other 

 cities will surely be stimulated by this noble 

 movement and enrich their park systems 

 with an educational aid of the greatest 

 value. 



Formerly Botanic Gardens, attached even 

 in a remote manner to educational institu- 

 tions, were largely used for the cultivation 

 of medicinal plants and for the reception of 

 species from distant lands. Of course, this 

 use, although its importance is now rela- 

 tively less than ever before, will still long 

 continue to be a factor in the direction of 

 activities. But here and there new phases 

 of plant relations are being displayed in the 

 greater gardens, and with the most grati- 

 fying results. Geographical questions are 

 asked and answered by skilful grouping of 

 species, and in the most attractive way. 

 The bearing of climate on the structure, 

 habit and possibilities of plants is made 

 prominent in an interesting fashion. The 

 capabilities of useful plants and the exten- 

 sion of their range of usefulness comprise 

 another phase of illustration. which always 

 sets visitors to thinking. Beyond and, we 

 may say, above these questions, which are 

 pretty strictly utilitarian, there comes now- 

 adays another class of illustrations which 

 are of the highest educational value in a 

 community, namelj', the biological features 

 which are invested with such important re- 

 lations to all departments of intellectual 

 activity. The manifold relations of plants 

 to their surroundings and to other organ- 

 isms constitute in some of the botanical 

 gardens of the present day the most attrac- 

 tive sections. The special interest in this 

 can be more plainly seen if attention be 

 called to the gi-oups of climbing plants. 

 Think of reading Darwin's work on climb- 

 ing plants with the- living illustrations be- 



fore one ! This is only one of many stimu- 

 lating exhibitions in a garden adapted to 

 modern wants. 



The Arnold Arboretum, a department of 

 Harvard University and an adjunct of the 

 Boston Park system, has become one of the 

 most charming places for certain studies of 

 a general nature within reach of the public 

 of Boston. And yet it is confined chiefly 

 to woody plants. Without such limitations 

 the New York Garden may, perhaps, ofifer 

 even a wider field for general study to the 

 public now so eager to learn something 

 about nature at first hand. 



With the secure foundation of the New 

 York Garden, three of our cities will be 

 well provided with botanical establishments 

 of the highest class. We venture to hope 

 that many other cities will soon emulate 

 the example of Boston, St. Louis and New 

 York. George Lincoln Goodale. 



Haevaed Univeesity. 



THE SUBMERGENCE OF WESTERN EUROPE 

 PRIOR TO THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD. 



The veteran geologist and archteologist. 

 Professor Joseph Prestwich, has recentlj'^ 

 contributed a suggestive memoir on this 

 subject to the Philosophical Transactions 

 of the Royal Society.* It treats of ' the 

 evidence of a submergence of Western Eu- 

 rope and of the Mediterranean coasts at the 

 close of the glacial or so-called post-glacial 

 period and immediatelj^ preceding the neo- 

 lithic or recent period,' and is accompanied 

 by an original map showing the chief areas 

 submerged. 



The memoir deals in turn with the char- 

 acter and distribution of ' rubble drift ' 

 loess, breccia, ossiferous fissures, raised 

 breaches, bone caves, shell beds, and pre- 

 sents the results of many years research 

 over this wide field. In a previous paper, 

 communicated to the Geological Society of 



*Vol. 184, 1893, A., i)p., 903-984. Plate 33. 

 Price 5 s. 6 d. 



