Miscellaneous. 



439 



[May, 1910. 



readiness with which this exchange of 

 thought takes place. 



An up-to-date Agricultural Depart- 

 ment, therefore, whose operations 

 ramify in different directions, and whose 

 officers are in touch with each other, so 

 that there is a continuous interchange 

 of ideas, finds one of its most valuable 

 functions as a collector and distributor 

 of information. Knowledge, which may 

 exist in the minds of isolated indivi- 

 duals, and which would otherwise have 

 but a limited use, is brought out and 

 made available for the service of all. 

 From this point of view the existence 

 of the central and sub-central officers 

 and stations must be regarded as being 

 most valuable, and even necessary, since 

 it ensures that the results of research 

 are not lost, that they are put to the 

 test and modified to suit local conditions, 

 and that they are continually being 

 kept before the notice of those whom 

 they immediately concern. 



It may be pointed out that this 

 work of taking existing knowledge and 

 making it available for general use is 

 one which may perhaps be regarded as 

 being more valuable, and more practi- 

 cally remunerative to the general body 

 of mankind even than the creation of 

 knowledge itself. Much useful know- 

 ledge may lie stored up and unused for 

 lack of an intelligent guide to its 

 existence and usefulness, while its 

 proper diffusion may change the current 

 of thought of a community or class of 

 workers and immediately prove re- 

 munerative and of tangible value. What 

 better instance can be cited than that 

 of Mendel whose discovery lay hidden 

 in The Proceedings of the Natural 

 History Society of Briinn for neatly 

 forty years ? As soon as his work was 

 brought to light and adequately made 

 known, it was immediately fruitful of 

 great results, the full importance of 

 which is probably yet unrealized,* 



It is important that those in adminis- 

 trative charge of affairs should re- 

 cognize the value of organisation for 

 the purpose of diffusing knowledge — 

 agricultural and otherwise. They are 

 often prone to tnink that its useful facts 

 have once been placed on record that 

 is sufficient, and that in the usual course 

 of things they will be discovered and 

 applied by those locally interested ; but 

 this is seldom the case. Progress in any 

 given line of work is immensely hastened 

 and rendered both easier and more cer- 

 tain by the existence of organizations 

 whose duty it is to collect, co-ordinate, 

 classify and diffuse knowledge. In agri- 



*See Agricultural News, Vol. VI LI., pp. 33-4 

 and 49-50. 



cultural work this implies agencies of 

 many kinds, reaching out on the one 

 hand into the fields and into close touch 

 with the daily work therein, and culmin- 

 ating in a central organization capable of 

 the duties outlined above. Such a sys- 

 tem is well exemplified in the agricultural 

 organizations of various countries, but 

 perhaps nowhere to greater advantage 

 than in the magnificent system of the 

 Department of Agriculture of the United 

 States, which is proving of incalculable 

 value to that progressive country. 



SECOND "MASTERS" LECTURE. 



The Production of Horticultural 

 Varieties. 



(From the Gardeners' Chronicle, No. 

 1,188, Vol, XLVI., Saturday, 

 October 2, 1909.) 



On Tuesday last, Prof. Hugo de Vries 

 delivered . the second " Masters " Memo- 

 rial Lecture before a large audience at 

 the Royal Horticultural Society's Hall, 

 Vincent Square. 



Mr. A. D. Hall, F.R.S., who occu- 

 pied the chair, in briefly introducing 

 the lecturer, referred to the purpose of 

 these lectures, which are intended to 

 keep alive the memory of the late 

 Dr. Masters, and to bring before the 

 horticultural world the researches of 

 science as its discoveries bear upon the 

 practice of horticulture, and thus to 

 continue the work — the application of 

 science to horticultural practice — which 

 Dr. Masters never lost an opportunity 

 of furthering. 



Prof, de Vries, in his first lecture 

 (see Gardeners' Chronicle, June 26, 1909, 

 p. 419) dealt with Dr. Masters's own 

 researches in vegetable teratology ; in 

 this one his subject was mainly his own 

 researches into the origin of horticul- 

 tural varieties. He pointed out that 

 Darwin's work on the " Variations of 

 Plants and Animals under Domestica- 

 tion " had led the way for prolonged 

 investigation in showing how great a 

 significance attached to these variations 

 in supporting the theory of evolution. 

 Varieties may be regarded as " small 

 species," i e., groups of plants differing 

 from one another in only one or at most 

 a few characters, but differing so that 

 if their origin were not known, some 

 botanists would regard them as distinct 

 species. 



If, as will be generally admitted the 

 facts of variation strongly support the 

 argument for evolution, the lecturer 

 pointed out that the process by which 

 variations arose in all its details became 



