96 
NATURE NOTES. 
shire. It is a most beautiful plant in the garden. I have had a mass of it 
eighteen inches high (the root originally from Craig Breidden) in full flower, and 
distributed over one hundred specimens to try and save the native specimens as 
much as possible. This distributing of garden-grown specimens of our rare native 
plants certainly does seem to help to satisfy the craving to fill up gaps in herbaria. 
I have done so with a good many of our tarest species, such as Sottchus pa/ustris, 
Carex Buxbawnii, C. depauperata, C. salina , Veronica spicala, Ranunculus 
chaerophyllus, Lathyrus niger , L. hirsuties, Pcucedanuin officinale, Hicrochlce 
borealis, Calamagrostis strigosa, ire., lire., all from native localities. 
Arthur Bennett. 
Evolution.- — I have to thank the Rev. George Henslow for his obliging 
notice of my question in the previous number of Nature Notes. 
It seems, as he shows, that I have all along been in good company in the 
difficulty I felt. It still, however, meets me. He tells us that two plants, with 
two different specific names, when growing in different soils, if the one be trans- 
planted to that in which the other has grown, become— at all events some- 
times — (which to my mind is equivalent to always, if the same circumstances 
could be exactly produced around both), indistinguishable or separate from each 
other, in, or by, any apparent specific difference that can be detected. 
I quite agree with Air. Henslow when he says that our men of science may 
give to this or that plant as many different names as they please, as if specifically 
distinct, and therefore demanding specific names, but I say that the individual 
plant itself ignores, and has nothing to do with such fictitious names. This seems 
to me to be altogether corroborative of what I said, and to affirm it with a 
Q. E. D. 
I can only add that such cases as this convince me more and more, if indeed 
it could be possible for me to be more convinced than I always have been from the 
first, that the “use of the Imagination in science ! ” is the only basis of all the 
wonderful theories the evolutionists build upon for their Tower-of- Babel 
superstructure. 
I should like also to know what has been, or is, or will be gained by the use of 
the French word “ environment,” in all these instances of supposititious suggestions? 
Not indeed that there is really such a French word at all. Why should not our 
old-fashioned English word “surroundings,” have answered the purpose as well, 
if not better, as being more in vogue, and better to be “ understanded of the 
people?” But then the other has an “imposing” look, or sound, so as to 
give lustre to science in the eyes of those who like to be impressed, if not im- 
posed upon, by any such ampul/as et sesquipedalia verba. F. O. MORRIS. 
Nunburnholme Rectory. 
The River Bank at Richmond.— Under the head of “ Work of Branches ” 
may be found some details as to the line of action taken by the Lower Thames 
Valley Branch, in the matter of what is called sewer ventilation, i.e., the im- 
pregnation of the pure atmosphere of the River Bank at Richmond with the 
foul air, and it may be, poisonous germs, discharged from the local sewage. So, 
at least the most vehement of the opponents of the scheme described it. But even 
if the sewage ventilators are not so directly malodorous and malarious, we believe 
no one has denied their unsightliness as blots upon the landscape. The result of 
the action taken by the Selborne Society was that a very strong and popular local 
opposition to the scheme was organised ; and eventually the Drainage Board con- 
sented to erect, instead of eight, only three ventilators to vomit forth foul air on 
the river banks. So far the protectors have triumphed ; and we do not think it 
is by any means a poor victory to have put hors lie combat the majority (five- 
eighths) of the enemy’s forces, composed, as a Selbornian of vivid imagination has 
described them, of fiery dragons belching forth noxious vapours ! 
The contest on this occasion will no doubt be of great use in any future attempt 
to force upon the people of Richmond what is distasteful to them as tending to 
destroy the beauty of their town. The local authorities, some of whom displayed 
n very arrogant and dictatorial disposition will think twice, or even thrice, before 
they venture to face a powerful opposition, such as was organised by the Local 
Branch of the Selborne Society. 
