JAMES REID ON PARKA DECIPIENS. 
123 
bined action, and thus the efforts for good in one locality are often 
frustrated by ill-advised action in another. Legislation emanating 
from practical knowledge based on experience is the only remedy. 
The Wild Bird Preservation Act of 1880 has already done much 
good, and the amending Act of 1894, which deals specially with the 
eggs of wild birds, is on its trial. 
The successful operation of these Acts will depend largely upon 
the spirit in which they are received and understood by the public at 
large, and there is no doubt that our local Natural History Societies 
throughout the country have much scope for usefulness, both in 
disseminating accurate information, and also in assisting, if need be, 
the County Councils, upon whom now rests the responsibility of 
setting the law in motion. Our aim should be to repair any mischief 
which we may have done in the past, and to restore to Nature what 
we can of that beautiful order and perfect harmony which belongs to 
ihe original design, always bearing in mind that the smallest and 
most insignificant representative of animal or vegetable life, equally 
with the largest, has its part to play in the great economy of Nature, 
and that we can no more decide the limit within which the influence 
of any particular particle of the universe is restrained, than we can 
measure the latent energy which exists in the tiniest ripple of an 
ocean wave, or calculate the result of the storm which we hear 
gathering in the first rustle of the forest leaves. 
The Dipper has shared with other birds the benefit of the above- 
mentioned Acts, and is now allowed to live unmolested. Although 
of a solitary disposition, he is always cheery, and sometimes in the 
air, sometimes in the water, now appearing, now disappearing from 
sight, he lends a mysterious charm to our mountain streams ; and 
wherever the current runs swift and strong, and when the rainbow 
flashes in the spray of the waterfall, the notes of his sweet song may 
be heard amid the roar of the cataract or mingling with the music of 
the hurrying waves. 
X.— T/ie Vegetable Origin of Parka decipiens. 
By James Reid. 
(Read 14th February, 1895.) 
It requires but a cursory glance at the subject of Geology to be 
convinced of the fact that the science has little or no claim to rank 
as an “exact science.” Yet year by year a progress in the main in 
the latter direction is unquestionably apparent. Much of this ad¬ 
vance is doubtless due to microscopic and allied methods of research, 
