Occasional Notes. 187 
Biological Observatory, there should have been inaugu- 
rated a central and general Biological Station, where 
workers in all branches of biology, terrestrial and 
marine, would have had facilities for carrying on experi- 
ments and researches in all matters pertaining to the 
Botany and Zoology of the tropical zone. 
The special work of any Biological Station will 
necessarily be greatly dependent on the funds at its 
disposal ; and its utility will be considerably hampered 
by anything less than the most ample and generous 
support. That votes from the Home and Jamaica gov- 
ernments, supplemented by grants-in-aid from the chief of 
the great Learned Societies and Academic Bodies and 
from private persons, will be sufficient to fit up and start 
the Observatory, may be taken for granted ; but it would 
have been a wise and desirable thing to have so extended 
the scheme as to have directly insured as well the hearty 
support of the governments of the surrounding Islands 
and States, both British and Foreign, together with that 
of the chief agriculturists and men of commerce. 
In a highly cultured community it is unnecessary now-a- 
days to plead the interests and advantages of the pur- 
suit of pure science ; but away from the great centres of 
civilisation, the case is different. Here the leaders of 
commerce and the pioneers of the various industries, 
while they unfortunately often lack the appreciation of pure 
science, regarding it — as so many highly cultured, but 
still only partially educated people do — as " useless 
knowledge", yet appreciate to the full its economic appli- 
cations. Nearly every, if not every, industry of the West 
Indies and tropical America would be benefited by ex- 
tensive scientific investigation and experiment. A bio- 
Z2 
