496 Canadian Recoi^d of Science. 



to get at the oats beyond. 



All this is conceded ; but whether the offspring of such 

 smart animals inherit the advanced position reached by their 

 sires and dams, and thus in time an elevation above the old 

 level is attained by a whole family, is a moot point. The 

 Darwinians would call such clever individuals the " fittest " 

 among their contemporaries ; but whether they have any 

 special advantages in the struggle of existence, and thus are 

 " selected " by nature, can scarcely be regarded as established 

 hj proof. But Dr. Mills may claim to have established by 

 proof that inherited capacities and acquired knowledge must 

 be regarded as co-ordinate factors in the development of 

 general animal intelligence. 



An interesting side issue has been raised in this volume. 

 It grows out of the demonstration of the superior energy and 

 earlier catering power of mongrels, as compared with pure 

 bred animals. Does this also hold of the human race ? Are 

 we in this way to account for the characteristic qualities of 

 the Englishman of to-day ? Has he, too, acquired by the 

 mingling of the blood of many nations in his veins, activity 

 and catering force at the expense of modesty and gentleness ? 



R. C. 



Problems and Possibilities of Systematic Botany. — 

 Address of Benjamin Lincoln Robinson, Ph.D., Retiring 

 President of the Botanical Society of America, delivered 

 before the Society, August 28th, 1901. Reprinted from 

 " Science," Vol. xiv.. No. 352. 



In this comprehensive address. Dr. Robinson touches on 

 some of the most important practice,! matters requiring to-day 

 the attention of botanists. His experience as Professor of 

 Botany and Curator of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard Univer- 

 sity, must have impressed upon him the lack of uniformity 

 and the absence of the precision in the manner of dealing with 

 specimens, on the part of his correspondents ; and he invites 

 botanical workers everywhere to co-operate in securing the 

 best systematic results. He attacks the prevailing desire to 

 erect new species, and criticises, perhaps not too severely, 

 the looseness of description too often furnished by those 

 claiming to have discovered such species. As a partial remedy 

 for the wordy analyses with which he finds fault, he would 

 not be averse to seeing the adoption in America of the use 

 of Latin for the purpose of plant description, as that language 



