514 



SCmNGE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 117. 



clear view of the general progress of legislation 

 for the eight years ending in 1897. 



A SECOND edition of Professor Bailey's ' Sur- 

 vival of the Unlike ' having been called for, he 

 has prepared a new preface, in the course of 

 which he thus summarizes his views on heredity 

 and variation: "I conceive the organic crea- 

 tion to have started out with no definite tenden- 

 cies so far as the corporeal forms of organisms 

 are concerned, but these tendencies have all 

 been developed — heredity amongst the rest — 

 by the environmental necessities of later time ; 

 whilst variation or plasticity was a normal and 

 necessary feature of the original form of life, 

 this constitutional elasticity has been constantly 

 bred out by the pressure of circumstances, and 

 the subsequent variation has come to be more 

 and more the result of definite environments. 

 In some groups, in which the decline towards 

 extinction has now well progressed, or when 

 environments are very stable, organisms re- 

 produce themselves with considerable rigidity, 

 so that it may be said that like produces like. 

 In some of the variable groups, which, pre- 

 sumably, have not yet reached the height of 

 their development, it might with equal truth 

 be said that unlike produces unlike. But, in 

 any event, the normal or original fact is con- 

 ceived to be that unlike produces unlike. At 

 the present time it would be truer to say that 

 similar produces similar." We are glad to 

 learn that Professor Bailey is contemplating a 

 work on the philosophy of the evolution of 

 plants. 



The Cairo correspondent of the London 

 Times writes that the second annual horticul- 

 tural exhibition was opened by the Khedive on 

 January 22d. This year an agricultural de- 

 partment was added, comprising exhibits of 

 food, forage, textile and dyeing products from 

 all parts of Egypt. A novelty was specimens 

 of bagging and fine canvas made from the fibre 

 of the sisal agave, the cultivation of which has 

 lately been introduced by Mr. E. A. Floyer, who 

 has established 30,000 plants in various places, 

 and anticipates that after two years their produce 

 will attain important dimensions. The plant 

 requires very little care or irrigation, and can be 

 grown in places unsuited for other crops. The 



fibre exhibited was decorticated in a hand ma- 

 chine invented by M. Faure, Messrs. J. Planta 

 and Co., Swiss merchants, of Alexandria, who 

 have established a scientific experimental cot- 

 ton plantation near Zagazig, on which 60 differ- 

 ent cultivations are being made, exhibited 

 some of the results of their enterprise in an ar- 

 tistic kiosque, where every detail connected 

 with the plant could be studied. The dis- 

 play of vegetables, chiefly by natives and the 

 youths of the Agricultural College, contained 

 some fine specimens, grown to a consider- 

 able extent from imported English seeds, for 

 which a good demand has sprung up. The 

 Finance Ministry's nurserj' garden at Ghezireh 

 is an active agent in cultivating and distri- 

 buting economic plants. Immediately after 

 the exhibition it received applications for 

 5,000 young trees from native cultivators. 

 The show of butter, vying with the best de- 

 scriptions produced in Europe, was remark- 

 able as representing an industry dating from 

 only three or four years back. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The late Sir Thomas Elder has bequeathed 

 £155,000 for public objects in Adelaide, includ- 

 ing £65,000 for the University. 



Me. W. H. Coebett, the new United States 

 Senator from Oregon, has given the Pacific 

 University, Forest Grove, Ore., $10,000. 



The report that the University of Wisconsin 

 had overdrawn its account on the State Fund 

 is incorrect. We are informed on the best au- 

 thority that the balance to the credit of the 

 University is $40,000. 



Wellesley College will receive $3,000 for 

 a scholarship through the will of the late Sarah 

 S. Holbrook. 



Funds are being collected for a Joseph 

 Mosenthal fellowship of music in Columbia 

 University, $6,000 having already been given. 



Peofessoe H. Wilson Haeding, who for 25 

 years has held the chair of physics and electri- 

 cal engineering at Lehigh University, will be 

 made professor emeritus at the end of the pres- 

 ent year. 



