NOVEMBEB 9, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



599 



fulfills a variety of purposes with which the 

 ' schools ' have, and can have, nothing to do. 

 At the national herbarium, for example, the 

 botanical history of the last two or three hun- 

 dred years can be traced ; the types of Linnean 

 species, of the early American collectors, and 

 the great Sloane Herbarium are therein pre- 

 served; and so far from showing any signs of 

 becoming ' obsolete,' they are constantly con- 

 sulted by botanists from all parts of the world, 

 both by personal visits and by correspondence. 

 Apart from these, the student of the British 

 flora, the amateur botanist, the horticulturist, 

 the elementary teacher and the intelligent in- 

 quirer find the herbarium a convenient center 

 for prosecuting their studies, and for obtain- 

 ing information which they could not readily 

 obtain elsewhere. If Professor Oliver's ideal 

 were realized, botany would become the sole 

 possession of the schools; and not only the 

 foreign systematist, but the general public, 

 the private student, the amateur and the 

 monographer would be excluded from consid- 

 eration. The national herbarium and that at 

 Kew are supported by public funds; it is, 

 therefore, manifestly but common justice that 

 the public, rather than the schools, should 

 have the prior claim to their services. 



The fact is that Professor Oliver looks at 

 botany exclusively from his own somewhat 

 narrow standpoint — that of a successful and 

 capable teacher obsessed by the notion that 

 teaching is the only thing worth troubling 

 about. For this purpose there must be an 

 alliance between the authorities of the her- 

 baria and the * local university ' ; for ' directly 

 you give the keepers or assistants in the 

 former a status in the latter, you place at the 

 disposal of the systematists a considerable 

 supply of recruits in the form of advanced 

 students possessing the requisite training to 

 carry out investigations under direction.' 

 But where are these students to find employ- 

 ment? If the fusion of the two herbaria to 

 which he looks forward would effect ' a great 

 economy in effort, time and money,' it would 

 seem that the openings for trained students 

 would have to be reduced rather than in- 

 creased. 



Professor Oliver has not adduced convin- 

 cing evidence of the organizing capacity of 

 ' the local university,' or of the desirability of 

 entrusting to it, or to ' the schools,' the sole 

 management of botanical affairs. The Lon- 

 don University, for example, has recently been 

 severely criticized in the daily press for the 

 mismanagement and neglect of the valuable 

 libraries entrusted to its charge. The Tribune 

 of August 16, says: 



The university, when it migrated from Burling- 

 ton Gardens to its present quarters, had two mag- 

 nificent collections of books — the ' Grote ' and the 

 ' De Morgan,' besides a considerable accumulation 

 gathered at various times. When the removal 

 took place the books were conveyed in trolleys 

 by workmen, * dumped down ' anywhere, and al- 

 lowed to remain in the utmost confusion exposed 

 to great risk and damage. Kare editions were 

 actually found later on at the bottom of the lift- 

 hold in a pool of water. Books lay about in 

 rooms where committees sat; any one who took 

 a fancy to a volume carried it off, entering his 

 name, and the name of the author, if he were 

 very scrupulous, in a little washing-book. A porter 

 was librarian, and the lift-boy sublibrarian. At 

 one time it was proposed to make a subject- 

 catalogue, and a former official of the university 

 began to carry out the scheme on slips of paper, 

 as he rode to and from his work on the omnibus. 

 His notes have been preserved as a curiosity. 

 He catalogued a famous antiquarian work on 

 ' Seals ' under ' Zoology.' 



May it not be asked whether the universities 

 or ' the schools ' have done more for the ad- 

 vancement of ' botany in England ' than men 

 like Eobert Brown and Sir Joseph Hooker, 

 whose work was unconnected with either? Is 

 it not the case that at the present time botany 

 in our oldest university finds its most active 

 exponent in the person of an amateur sys- 

 tematist ? 



One lesson which may be gathered from 

 Professor Oliver's onslaught is the extreme 

 importance of retaining the national herba- 

 rium under the management of trustees One 

 shudders to think what would happen were it 

 handed over to the tender mercies of men 

 of his stamp, or to some purely bureaucratic 

 body. This danger was pointed out by the 



