270 



[October, 1912. 



It has been customary to meet all such doubts by the statement that 

 Wickham collected the seeds of one species on the Tapajos, and from those 

 seeds all the cultivated Heveas are descended. But it will be seen from 

 the details already set forth that this answer does not meet the case. 

 Wickham's was certainly the main consignment, and was distributed to 

 Ceylon, Singapore, and Burma ; but Cross's plants, which were obtained 

 within easy walking distance of Para, were also sent to Ceylon and 

 Singapore, while both Burma and Singapore received plants or seeds 

 from Ceylon subsequently, uearly all the old trees in the Singapore 

 Gardens being from Ceylon seed. Cross's contribution was small, but his 

 plants nevertheless formed five per cent, of the total sent to Ceylon, and 

 apparently a greater percentage of those sent to Singapore. There does 

 not appear to have been any distinction made between these consign- 

 ments, though one group of trees at Peradeniya is practically certainly 

 part of Wickham's collection, and so are, presumably, those in the 

 Forest Office compound at Mergui, if they still exist. 



In addition to these two consignments there was the earlier batch of 

 seed obtained in 1873 from Cameta, near Para. Six of the seedlings 

 raised were sent to Calcutta and need not trouble us further; but from 

 the remainder, plants were propagated by cuttings at Kew (Kew Report 

 1875), and it would seem quite probable that these would be distributed. 

 In thatcase, though the bulk of the plants were derived from the Tapajcs 

 there are at least two other sources to be considered, and under the 

 circumstances it is apparent that a systematic examination of the plant- 

 ation Hevea of the East is more desirable than has hitherto been supposed 



T. PETCH. 



THE PREPARED MIND. 



Science of June 21st last reproduces an address by Dr. Pearce of the 

 University of Pennsylvania delivered on May 21st at Syracuse University. 



He takes as his text the words of Pasteur " In the fields of observation, 

 chance favours only the mind which is prepared " and goes on to preach 

 on the value of research work. 



The mind which is trained to observe the details of natural pheno- 

 mena, and to reason concerning the bearing of known laws on such pheno- 

 mena, is the " prepared mind," that is to say, it is a class of mind which, 

 because it is endowed with a peculiar faculty, best described as a scientific 

 imagination, grasps the significance of a new observation, or of a variance 

 of a known sequence of events, and thus establishes a new law or invents 

 a new practical procedure. 



The preliminary education of the individual is the first and in many 

 ways the most important consideration, and a knowledge of the scientific 

 principles of chemistry, physics and biology is invaluable to our youth. 

 The value of biological training was emphasized by Huxley many years 

 ago, and that of physic and chemistry has recently been emphasised by 

 Prederich Muller in his memorandum to the Royal Commission on Univer- 

 sity education in London. 



Dr. Pearce deals with his subject in relation to medical education, but 

 the need for a scientific grounding and the " prepared mind " is as urgent 

 in this as in other lines of study (whether Medicine, Agriculture, or 

 Botany) if education is to aid the human mind in the direction of origi- 

 nality, investigation, invention and discovery. 



