SCIENCE 



NEW YOEK, NOVEMBER 17. 1893. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



.^.^Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 

 writer's name is in all cases required as a proof of good faith. 



On request in advance, one hundred copies of the number con- 

 taining his communication will be furnished free to any corres- 

 pondent. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with 

 the character of the iournal. 



(For other letters see page 276.) 



Postage on Natural History Specimens. 



It has always been recognized that scientific re- 

 search is greatly furthered by the exchange of the 

 various objects with which that research is con- 

 cerned. For the transmission of objects of Natural 

 History from one country to another, the mails have 

 offered a cheap, speedy and reliable means. Here- 

 tofore, through the laxity with which the regulations 

 on the subject have been enforced, it has been possi- 

 ble to enter such objects in the mails of the Universal 

 Postal Union as samples of merchandise and under the 

 rates of postage therefor. From official information late- 

 ly received from the Post Office Department of the United 

 States it appears that such a rating is entirely unauthor- 

 ized by existing provisions, and that objects of Natural 

 History may be mailed to countries of the Union only at 

 the rates required for letters. The United States Post 

 Office Department also stated that it had recently submit- 

 ted a proposition to the countries composing the Postal 

 Union, to modify the regulations so that such specimens 

 might be received into the mails at the same rates as sam- 

 ples of merchandise, but that a sufficient number of those 

 countries had voted against the proposition to defeat it. 



This Academy has therefore resolved to address the 

 various scientific bodies, with which it is in communication 

 in those countries whose governments have voted against 

 the proposition, and to request those scientific bodies 

 to memorialize their resx^ective governments in favor of 

 the same. 



The Governments of Austria, Bolivia, British India 

 Canada, Crermany, Great Britain, Guatemela' Hungary 

 Japan, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Tunis, 

 Uruguay and Venezuela having voted in the negative, 

 this Academy respectfully requests the favorable con- 

 sideration of this question by scientific societies, and 

 begs that they take such steps as they deem advisable 

 to inform the postal authorities of their respective gov- 

 ernments of the manifest advantages to scientific re- 

 search which would result from the adojition of the 

 proposed modification, and to request those authorities 

 to take such steps as may result in the adoption of the 

 same. 



The letter rate for postage (Universal Postal Union) is 

 ten times that required for samples of merchandise; such 

 a rate for specimens of Natural History is virtually pro- 

 hibitive. 



This Academy would respectfully urge upon scientific 

 societies prompt action on this matter if it meets with 

 that approval which we so strongly desire. 

 IsA.ic J. WisT.vK, President. 

 Edw. J. NoL.\N, Recording Secretary. 



The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, November 14. 



The Picture in the landscape. 



The inquiry by Waldo Dennis, on page 213, into the 

 causes of the unlike impressions which one receives from a 

 given landscape and from a painting of it, seems to me to 

 explain the subject admirably. He supposes that the 

 reason why the picture appeals to us more than the land- 

 scape does is because the picture is condensed and the 

 mind becomes acquainted with its entire purpose at once, 

 while the landscape is so broad that the individual objects 

 at first fix the attention, and it is only by a process of 

 synthesis that the unity of the landscape finally becomes 

 apparent. This is admirably illustrated in photographs. 

 One of the first surprises which I experienced when I be- 

 gan the use of the camera was the discovery that very 

 tame scenes become interesting and often even spirited in 

 the photograph. But there is something more than mere 

 condensation in this vitalizing and beautifying effect of 

 the photograph or the painting. Individual objects are 

 so much reduced that they no longer appeal to us as dis- 

 tinct subjects, and however uncouth they may be in the 

 reality, they make no impression in the picture. The thin 

 and sere sward may appear rather like a closely shaven 

 lawn or a new-mown meadow. And again, the picture 

 sets a limit to the scene, it frames it, and thereby cuts off 

 all extraneous and confusing or irrelevant landscapes. 



All these remarks are enforced in the aesthetics of land- 

 scape-gardening. It is the artist's one desire to make pic- 

 tures in the landscape. This is done in two ways — by the 

 form of plantations and by the use of vistas. He will 

 throw his plantations into such positions that open and 

 yet more or less confined areas of greensward are pre- 

 sented to the observer at various points. This glade-like 

 opening is nearly or quite devoid of small or individual 



^< 





objects, which always destroy the unity of such areas 

 and are meaningless in themselves. The two sketches 

 illustrate my meaning. The upper one is a fair diagram 

 of the average front-yard. It is full of individual trees 

 and bushes, or groups, and the eye is carried from ob- 

 ject to object, while the entire yard makes no quick 

 appeal to the mind. One is pleased only with the kinds 

 of plants which he sees. The lower sketch presents a 

 definite area at once to the observer, and the individ- 

 ual plants are of minor importance. Here is a landscape 

 — a picture; there was a nursery. 



A vista is a narrow opening or view between planta- 

 tions to a distant landscape. It cuts up the broad horizon 

 into portions which are readily cognizable. It frames 



