190 NOTES. 
human nature that the study of dead things is at first repugnant to 
us. Living things are always interesting.. The student accord- 
ingly begins with these, and this experience has almost invariably 
the effect to awaken his genuine interest or enthusiasm in the 
phenomena of nature. This is the second point gained. With 
this his attention can be fastened upon dead specimens, and the 
laws of organization as ascertained through these can be taught. » 
Following upon this the practice was to take up some one of the 
great sequences of nature as observable in the animal kingdom ; 
such as is given by the series of the actinoid polypes. The highest 
class had during the past year gone through with a course holding 
up to view what is known upon the most pressing question of the 
times, namely, the origin of the human species. The essential 
features of this method was first brought into use in this country 
by Agassiz, the only changes being such as were required to make 
it applicable to large numbers of students and to extend it to'a 
course of several years of required work in the university. 
Tue London “Journal of Botany” for January contains an 
interesting biographical sketch of Friedrich Welwitsch, the emi- 
nent botanist and discoverer of the singular plant which bears his 
name. He was born in Germany in 1807, but spent a portion of 
his life in the employment of the Portuguese government as su- 
perintendent of various gardens, while he paid much attention to 
the fungi and alge, especially of Portugal. But his chief work 
was in elaborating the immense collections of plants made in the 
interior of Africa during a series of journeys which lasted seven 
years. ‘It was during his residence at Sange that Dr. Welwitsch 
made the acquaintance of Dr. Livingstone, then (October, 1854) 
on his way to Loanda, having travelled the whole distance from 
Cape Town. The two travellers lived together for some time, and 
the meeting had the effect of determining Dr. Welwitsch on re- 
linquishing an idea he had previously entertained of endeavoring 
to make his way across the continent to the Portuguese posses- 
sions on the east coast—a task which, as is well known, Living- 
stone successfully accomplished during the two following years.” 
As the result of these difficult and dangerous journeys he formed 
the best and most extensive herbarium ever collected in tropical 
a Africa. He z the author of several botanical papers of a high 
seeder: of meri 
