X THE BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT 147 



year by year these examples grow, though the 

 marvel remains a marvel still. The final results 

 are obvious. But how the adaptation came about 

 is still a mystery, nor is there one single example of 

 mimicry on the way to completion. Each species 

 and each instance might have been metamorphosed 

 in an instant of time for anything that has been 

 discovered to the contrary. 



In another department, botany, then under the 

 charge of Mr. Carruthers, F.R.S., now under Mr. 

 George Murray, there was secured for the Museum 

 what may be termed the ultimate perfection of 

 vegetable growth, so far as age and size condition 

 perfection — the section of the gigantic Sequoia, 

 one of a group of trees of such vast age that 

 certain trees might well have been flourishing 

 and shedding their seeds before the birth of Christ. 

 The case showing the conformity of desert animals 

 to their surroundings was completed later, and 

 another showing the different types of molluscs. 



In 1895, on the retirement of Dr. Giinther under 

 the age regulations, Flower took over the whole 

 duties of Keeper of Zoology, without payment. He 

 at once began the work, from which many a younger 

 man might have shrunk, of the complete rearrange- 

 ment, classification, and labelling of both the birds 

 and mammals. In addition each group was assigned 

 to its particular habitat by an ingenious use of small 

 maps, in which the range of the animal on the earth 

 was shown in scarlet paint on a white outline map. 



