July 22, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



105 



Lord Mayor said that, though it had only been 

 in use a few months in the training of students 

 who wished to become sanitary inspectors, 14 

 young townsmen had passed the examination 

 and in due course would get certificates and be 

 qualified to act as sanitary inspectors. 



The Select Committee on the Museums of the 

 Science and Art Department, met again on July 

 5th, as we learn from the London Times, and 

 made further progress with the consideration of 

 their report. Certain paragraphs of a recom- 

 mendatory character were postponed ; but the 

 portion of the Chairman's draft dealing with 

 the origin and development of the several mu- 

 seums which remained to be discussed was 

 finally disposed of, and when the Committee re- 

 assemble they will proceed at once to formulate 

 their conclusions. Although the question of 

 recommendations has yet to be dealt with, Sir 

 Francis Powell's draft report has already un- 

 dergone considerable alteration, not the least 

 important of the amendments accepted by the 

 Committee being one relating to the Bethnal- 

 green Museum (submitted by Sir Mancherjee 

 Bhownaggree) declaring that, inasmuch as no 

 arrangement has been made to provide techni- 

 cal instruction in connection with this institu- 

 tion, the object of its inception remains unreal- 

 ized. The oflScial records show that the Beth- 

 nal-green Museum was established to provide 

 for the working population of the East End 

 adequate means of instruction, and that prom- 

 ises were repeatedly given that a school of sci- 

 ence and art with a library attached should be 

 started. The complaint from the locality is 

 that no attempt has been made to redeem these 

 promises. 



A LETTEK has been received by the London 

 School Board from the London County Council 

 stating that the Parks and Open Spaces Com- 

 mittee had considered the Board's letter of May 

 24th last, which enclosed an extract from a re- 

 port from the British Embassy at Berlin, as to 

 the arrangements in force in that city for facili- 

 tating the study of botany, and which asked the 

 Council whether a somewhat similar arrange- 

 ment could not be made in Jjondon. The 

 County Council informed the Board that they 

 were taking steps in this direction by forming 



a series of beds in Battersea, Ravenscourt and 

 Victoria Parks, with specimens of plants in 

 their natural orders, and added that the Parks 

 Committee thought that it would be desirable to 

 see the result of this experiment before pro- 

 ceeding any further for the present. 



' A REVISION of the Genus Capsicum, with es- 

 pecial reference to garden varieties,' is the title 

 of an article by Mr. H. C. Irish in the last re- 

 port of the Missouri Botanical Garden. From 

 it we learn that some years since. Dr. Sturte- 

 vant, then of the New York Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, planned a systematic study 

 of the Capsicum, from an agricultural rather 

 than a strictly botanical standpoint, and, his 

 material, notes and library having been subse- 

 quently presented to the Missouri Botanical 

 Garden, for some years past all procurable 

 varieties of this polymorphic genus have been 

 grown in St. Louis and made the subject of cur- 

 rent study. In the present paper Mr. Irish, 

 the Horticultural Assistant at the Garden, 

 brings together the result of this study, pre- 

 facing the systematic portion by a general ac- 

 count of Capsicums and their uses. A mi- 

 nutely divided analytical key to the garden 

 peppers is provided, and in the synopsis these 

 are all arranged under two species, C annuum 

 and C. frutescens, the several botanical and 

 many horticultural varieties of which are de- 

 scribed in considerable detail. An unusual 

 feature, for a horticultural paper, is the very 

 large citation of references, especially to early 

 literature, many of which were accumulated by 

 Dr. Sturtevant, and in the verification of which 

 the magnificent pre-Linnasan library which he 

 brought together has been invaluable. All of 

 the principal varieties are represented in sim- 

 ple but efi^ective outline drawing. Mr. Charles 

 Henry Thompson, who last year published a 

 study of the Wolffiellas of the United States, 

 contributes to the Eeport a careful revision of 

 all of the Lemnacefe occurring in the United 

 States, in which analytical keys and good illus- 

 trations are provided for the ready determi- 

 nation of the species. 



A CIRCULAR has been issued by The Bureau 

 of Mines, Toronto, stating that the first discov- 

 ery of Corundum in Ontario was made late in the 



