PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE, clxxvii 
has been removed from large sections of the maps of Central Africa, 
Central Asia, Australia, South America, and even some parts of 
Central Greenland. The Arctic record has been pushed further and 
further north, but little has yet been done to unfold the secrets of the 
South Polar Regions. A very marked change has taken place within 
recent years in the recognition of Geography as one of the Natural 
Sciences, and in the methods which have been adopted in utilising it 
as a branch of Education. Our detailed knowledge also of the 
Earth’s surface has been immensely increased as the result of many 
exploring expeditions, and of the Ordnance Surveys which are now at 
work in most civilised countries. 
V.—BIOLOGY, INCLUDING PALAEONTOLOGY AND 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 
We come now to the science, or rather group of sciences, in which 
the greatest advance has taken place during the Victorian Era. The 
very grouping which I have suggested in the above heading indicates 
the changed point of view from which we now regard them. Sixty 
years ago, Biology, as a science of the facts common to both plant 
and animal life, was unknown ; Palaeontology was looked upon almost 
wholly as a department of geology, and fossils merely as a guide to 
the classification of the stratified rocks; while Anthropology, as the 
study of man in his relation to the rest of the animal kingdom, and 
the history of his appearance on the globe, was undreamed of. This 
comparison is well brought out when we glance over the record of 
the British Association. From 1832 to 1865, Zoology and Botany 
formed separate Departments of Section D; in 1866 these were 
united under the heading of Biology; and in 1895 a separate Section 
was created for the study of Botany alone. In 1884, Anthropology 
also received a Section to itself. 
As a mere matter of convenience, we shall first look at the two 
main branches separately, and then see what facts are common to 
both. 
(a) Botany. —Both as regards structural botany and systematic 
botany, the beginning of the Reign marked an important period of 
transition. Just a few years previously the Natural System of classifi¬ 
cation had been introduced by Antoine L. Jussieu, who died in 1836. 
This system, which supplanted the more arbitrary Linnsean system, 
gave a great impetus to botanical research. The work begun by 
Jussieu was carried on during the first half of this century by De 
Candolle, Robert Brown, Endlicher, Lindley, and Sir William 
Hooker. Of these the most prolific writer was perhaps De Candolle, 
whose great work, “ Prodromus Systematis Naturalist in twenty 
volumes, was begun in 1818 and completed in 1873, being carried on 
by other investigators for many years after his death. Robert Brown, 
the great Scotch Botanist, is best known for his pioneer investigations 
in structural and physiological Botany, and especially in Plant 
Embryology. The metamorphosis of plants had already been de¬ 
monstrated by the poet Goethe, and the fertilisation of plants by 
insects by Conrad Sprengel. Sir William Hooker’s work was chiefly 
