Notes . 
555 
in this country as it does in Germany, early in the education of every 
child. I have met many of my father's pupils abroad, in India and the 
Colonies, who have told me that the botanical lectures gave them 
the first ideas they had ever entertained of there being a natural 
classification of the members of the vegetable kingdom. Then with 
regard to the results in a botanical point of view, the magnetism of 
the lecturer, and the interest of the subject, imbued many of his 
pupils with a love of science that proved permanent and fruitful. 
They made observations and collections for their quondam Professor 
in the temperate and tropical climates of both hemispheres, some of 
them throughout their lives, which have very largely contributed to 
a knowledge of the Flora and vegetable resources of the globe. 
After twenty years of professorship my father retired, and undertook 
the directorship of the Royal Gardens, Kew. Since that period great 
changes have been introduced in the method of botanical teaching 
in all our Universities, due on the one hand to a vastly advanced 
comprehension of the structure of plants and of the functions of their 
organs, and on the other to a recognition of the fact that the study 
of the animal and vegetable kingdoms cannot be considered apart. 
Furthermore, chemistry, physics, and greatly improved microscopes 
are now necessary for the elucidation of the elementary problems 
of plant-life. The instruction in these two sciences (chemistry and 
physics) has, with all others, advanced in this University pari passu 
with that of botany, and kept it in the forefront of the educational 
establishments of the kingdom. The addition of the building in 
which we are assembled is evidence of the resolve that it shall not 
relax its efforts to maintain its well-earned position; and with the 
conviction that the Botanical Laboratory will prove an invaluable 
aid to research under the aegis of its distinguished Director, I now, 
under his authority, declare it open. 
Sir Wm. Thiselton-Dyer, who also addressed the company, said 
this was a very remarkable occasion. He was not speaking merely of 
the opening of this splendid building, but of the memories which had 
been recalled in the celebration of the ninth jubilee of the University. 
There was one idea which had dominated the proceedings — namely, 
how great was the responsibility which fell on every one in an 
academic institution, who had to do with education. Lord Kelvin, in 
an eloquent speech made the previous night, told them that the past, 
the present, and the future were all one, that the present was the 
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