The British Association in South Africa. 205 
Wednesday, August 16th. As it had been arranged for 
the President, Mr. Harold Wager, to deliver his address in 
Johannesburg, he opened the proceedings in Cape Town with 
a few suitable introductory remarks, and then introduced 
Professor R. W. Phillips, who delivered a semi-popular lecture 
on “ The More Recent Advances in our Knowledge of Seaweeds.” 
Dealing first with the attached shore vegetation, the lecturer 
pointed out that much yet remains to be done, particularly in 
regard to the reproductive processes of groups such as the 
Siphonaceae and Laminariaceae. 
But a considerable advance has been made in recent years. 
Oltmanns has completely changed the older views regarding the act 
of fertilisation in the Red Seaweeds. Amongst the Brown Algas, 
Lloyd Williams has discovered motile antherozoids in the 
Dictyotaceae ; while Mottier, and later Williams, have shown that 
a true reduction division occurs in Dictyota, in the mother cells of 
the tetraspores. This points to the existence in this plant of a 
definite alternation of generations, the two generations being 
externally indistinguishable unless reproductive organs are present, 
though they essentially differ in the number of chromosomes 
present in their dividing nuclei. Professor Phillips also dealt with 
the distribution and composition of the floating oceanic plankton. 
Professor Douglas Campbell read a short note on the 
prothallium of Cleichenia pectinata, and Professor Potter discussed 
the healing of parenchymatous tissues in plants. 
The rest of the morning was occupied by a discussion, opened 
by the President, on “ Educational Methods in the Teaching of 
Botany.” 
Mr. Wager animadverted upon the methods usually employed 
in teaching botany, in both universities and schools, and said that 
they neither afforded an adequate training in scientific method, nor 
developed a real interest in the subject. The really important part 
of a botanical course was the practical work, which should be both 
observational and experimental. Lectures ought to be entirely 
subsidiary to practical work, and should not be so much the means 
of imparting information, as discussions on the facts learned by 
the students during such work. At present examinations occupy 
far too important a position, and become, instead of mere tests of 
the work done, an end in themselves. Examination syllabuses are 
usually far too full, and leave little room for originality on the part 
of the teacher. Professor Campbell gave a description of the 
