80 SCIENCE. 
MEMORABILIA BOTANICA, I. 
(Lihted by Erwin F. Smith, B.S., D.S., Washington, D.C.) 
CABINET WOODS AT THE FAIR. 
ONE of the most interesting forestry exhibits at the 
Columbian Exposition was from New South Wales. The 
variety of their hard woods and the polish many of them 
take was a surprise to Americans. The only exhibit 
approaching it in beauty was that from Michigan. ‘The 
woods of New South Wales must certainly come into ex- 
tensive use at no very distant day. For novelties in 
cabinet ware nothing could be more attractive, and it 
would seem that such treasures. need only to be exploited 
to find their way everywhere among lovers of the beauti- 
ful. In looking over this collection from the antipodes 
one could not repress a burst of thankfulness at finding it 
properly labeled. The exhibits from a number of countries, 
Spanish ones in particular, were robbed of much of their 
interest by indifferent labeling. To look over a large 
number of woods, all polished at great expense and some 
of them exceedingly beautiful, only to find Spanish or 
Indian names, was, from a scientific standpoint, rather 
discouraging, to say the least. In many cases one could 
not learn even the natural family, much less the genus and 
species. ‘The matter is the more to be regretted since 
such opportunities for study come but rarely. 
THE UNCERTAINTIES OF COMMON NAMES. 
THE necessity for the more general use of scientific 
names in books of travel, economic works and various 
writings of a semi-scientific character, could not be im- 
pressed more forcibly than by this same forestry exhibit of 
New South Wales. For an American, especially if he desires 
to reach the common people, it is the most natural thing 
in the world to think everybody will know what he means 
by suchnames as white pine or red cedar. These names 
are not likely to be misunderstood in the United States, 
but if an author’s writings are to be permanently useful to 
science the whole world over, then he must use the com- 
mon language of science. To illustrate, New South 
Wales has an exceedingly varied flora, but not many of its 
genera, and very few, indeed, of its species, grow in the 
United States, and yet many of their common names are 
identical with our own. Plants of the United States and 
New South Wales, of very diverse genera, bear the same 
common name, ¢.g., according as one 1s American or 
Australian, elm means U/mus or Aphanathe; tulip tree, 
Lirtodendron or Anopterus; apple tree, Pyriws-malus or 
Angophora tutermedia; honeysuckle, Lonicera or Banksia; 
sycamore, Plutanus occidentalis or Cryptocorya obovata ; hazle, 
Corylus or Pomaderris, dogwood, Carnus or ALjoporum ; 
ironwood, Ostrya or Tarrietia; white cedar, Cupressus or 
Mela; mountainash, Pyrus americana or Lucalyptus virgata ; 
white pine, Penus strobus or Frenela robusta; sassafras, 
Sassafras or Doryphora,; red cedar, Juniperus virginiana 
or Cedrela australis; beech, Fagus or Gemelina; hickory, 
Carva or Acacia; swamp oak, Quercus or Casurina; box, 
Buxus or Eucalyptus; black oak, Quercus or Casurina; red 
ash, Praxinus pubescens or Abphitonta excelsa; black ash, /. 
sambucifolia or Ciupania semielauca. Now suppose an 
economic writer of New South Wales to deal only in com- 
mon names, and then imagine the confusion of an American 
reader, or reverse the case and imagine the perplexity of 
the Australian, if the diverse usage of the two countries 
were not known. Vhe absurdity 1s apparent, and also the 
need of greater exactness in specifying what is meant by 
a common name. When the common name is ina foreign 
language the difficulty of arriving at the author’s meaning 
is still greater, as everybody knows who has been com- 
pelled to depend on the imperfect and not seldom con- 
tradictory statements of lexicographers. 
THE COFFEE DISEASE OF CEYLON. 2 
\ 
PERSONS interested in coffee may have noticed in the 
Ceylon building at the Faira big chart showing an as- 
tonishing decrease in the coffee product of that island 
during recent years. Formerly Ceylon was one of the 
great coffee producing regions of the globe, but within a 
decade the exports have fallen off so much that now the 
island scarcely cuts any figure in the total product of the 
world. Probably very few readers of Sczence know the 
cause of this. It has not been due to adverse legislation 
or to over-production in other localities, but almost solely 
to the ravages of a rust fungus, Hemleta vastatrix, which 
has destroyed the foliage on the coffee plantations in whole 
districts year after year. The losses have been so sweep- 
ing and disastrous as to bankrupt individuals, discourage 
planting and practically ruin a great industry. Dr. 
Haberlandt states that many of the large and beautiful 
coffee plantations can be bought to-day for one-tenth of 
their former value, the decrease of property values ,on 
account of this disease being estimated at about 10,000,000 
pounds sterling. Recently it has been reported that the 
disease can be prevented by the use of copper fungicides. 
Owing, however, to the close planting of the groves, young 
trees under old and all interlacing, it 1s said to be im- 
possible to spray with machinery and that the use of knap- 
sack sprayers is too slow and expensive to be practical. 
‘The disease also occurs in Java, but lovers of the berry 
will be glad to know that it has not been reported from 
Mexico or Brazil. 
BOTANY IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 
For a long time the botanists of the country have 
recognized the sad state of botanical teaching in most of 
our high schools and smaller colleges. Chemistry and 
physics are taught experimentally, 7.c., by laboratory 
methods, in all except a few hopelessly antiquated and 
fossilized schools, but botany is still taught quite gener- 
ally by the old text-book-parrot method. ‘Teachers do 
not seem to know that there is any better way, or that 
reciting lessons from a book is one thing, and the study 
of nature quite another. Indeed, the public mind itself, 
quite generally, needs to be disabused of the idea that 
science can be learned out of books. Books, when 
well written, are useful stimuli and valuable repositories 
of facts, but a man may study the printed page until he 
is gray without getting in touch with nature or acquir- 
ing the scientific spirit. Living, fruitful knowledge can 
come only from grappling directly with the phenomena of 
nature. Thisis why it is possible for students to take a 
three mnths’ or six months’ course in botany, so-called, 
and still have no interest in plant life, bringing away from 
their study nothing better than a meagre portfolto of in- 
correctly determined snips (there were some of these on 
exhibition at the Fair), a hopeless muddle of technical 
terms, and the lifelong feeling that botany is a very dry 
and uninteresting subject. On the whole, no instrifction 
at all is perferable to such teaching. Those who have 
realized the badness of this sort of teaching have done what 
they could individually to improve it, but without any 
great measure of success. Now it is proposed to see if 
an organized effort will not be more fruitful. The subject 
came up for discussion in Section G (Botany) at the Madi- 
son meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, anda committee was appointed to devise 
ways of improving botanical teaching in secondary schools. 
‘This committee will report to the Section next year, and 
if their report is approved it is hoped that it can go before 
the country with the endorsement and influence of the 
whole Association. Teachers who are groping about for 
Vol. XXIII. No. 575 
