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THE WORK OF FIELD CLUBS. 
May, 1889 . 
is already known, and this we can do without special quali¬ 
fications. Unhappily, our schoolmasters have hardly yet 
begun to perceive that the great book of Nature—the stars, 
the mountains, the worlds of plant and animal life—is of 
more real interest and importance to living men than the 
correct scanning of Greek iambics, or the enunciation of the 
fact that the nearest distance between two points is a 
straight line. I am far from depreciating classics and 
mathematics. They have their place in a liberal education, 
but they have no right to supremacy, and I venture to affirm 
that a school, whether public or private, which does not 
teach natural science, is omitting that kind of instruction 
which is best adapted to give to the minds of its alumni . 
solidity, breadth, and insight. 
The esteemed President of the Caradoc Field Club, the 
Rev. J. D. La Touche, is attempting to promote original 
research in natural history amongst the members of his club. 
The object is most commendable, and in the Caradoc Field 
Club there are more men of sufficient competence to respond 
to his wishes than this club can supply, and for the present we 
must content ourselves with more modest work. Nevertheless, 
there are many fields of work in which we may acquire an 
intelligent knowledge of broad facts, or may even open up 
new veins of enquiry. Those who are interested in plants 
would find a world of marvels in the fertilisation of flowers. 
Mr. Darwin has shown that the vigour of plants largely 
depends upon the fertilisation of their ovaries by pollen from 
other plants of the same species. This pollen is usually 
conveyed by insects. Thus it is the interest, if we may so 
speak, of each plant that it shall be visited by as many 
insects as possible. Hence the numerous devices by which 
plants attract their visitors. The little tube with its store of 
honey is the chief allurement to the insect, but the perfume, 
the colour, the shape, of the flower are all concerned in 
facilitating the process of fertilisation ; so that it is not too 
much to say that the wonderful beauty and variety of flowers 
have resulted from the need of cross-fertilisation. Everv 
garden, every hedgerow, will provide us with abundant 
material for enquiry. Why has the rose separate petals, 
while in the primrose the petals are combined into a tube ? 
Why is the flower of the pea irregular, while the corolla of 
the convolvulus is as regular as a funnel ? These and ten 
thousand similar enquiries would stimulate the faculties and 
might lead to the discovery of new facts. The mere collection 
of specimens is, of course, a good training for the eye, and it 
tends to promote habits of accurate thought; but to search 
