THE 
HEW PHYTOhOGIST. 
March 28th, 1904 
THE OPENING OF THE NEW BOTANICAL SCHOOL 
AT CAMBRIDGE. 
N Tuesday, March 1st, the King and Queen journeyed to 
Cambridge to take part in the celebrations connected with the 
opening of the remarkable group of new buildings recently erected 
by the University. Whilst such different branches of study as Law, 
Medicine, Geology, as well as Botany, all benefit materially under the 
enlightened scheme now brought to a successful termination, it is 
more particularly with the fortunes of the last-named subject that 
we are immediately concerned. 
The accommodation and facilities offered by the new building 
mark at once the outward recognition by the University of the 
vigorous growth of the Botanical School it has been erected to 
house, and the high position which that school holds in the esteem 
of Botanists. 
How vigorous has been this growth may be shortly traced. It 
may be said without serious inaccuracy that the present Cambridge 
School has sprung into existence within the last quarter of a century. 
Even those whose knowledge of the Botanical Department dates 
back no further than twenty years, witnessed the early stages of the 
Botanical rejuvenescence in Cambridge. At that time the depart¬ 
ment consisted of little more than a herbarium and an inconvenient 
lecture room. It was Dr. Vines, by his successful and inspiring 
teaching, who first kindled the fire, though the facilities at his com¬ 
mand were of the most rudimentary. For his practical classes, 
Dr. Vines had to be content with a small corner separated by paper 
screens from a room used in the service of the herbarium. This 
original laboratory, the germ from which the present noble building 
has developed, was on the ground floor at the corner on emerging 
from the tunnel which led from the Cavendish Laboratory to the 
rough northern court of the then “ New Museums,” For the pur- 
