NATURALISTS’ FIELD CLUB

Evening Star, Issue 22144, 26 September 1935, Page 2

NATURALISTS’ FIELD CLUB

MISS KING'S ADDRESS At the fortnightly meeting of the above club on Monday night Miss M. H. M. King was the speaker for the evening. Miss King’s subject was ‘Science and Poetry in Relation to Nature.’ “To-night will bo something of a philosophical kind. We will be approaching the world along a lino of philosophical thought,” said the speaker, who wen Lon to say that philosophy is a putting together of what can bo obtained in various other ways. For instance, the building of an edifice is akin to the work which philosophy does. It builds a temple of life. We construct a thesis or theorem of life, and that is our philosophy. . • The antithesis of poetry is not prose, but science. Here two antithetical modes of regarding this world about us ace brought together. The idea that things exist for our own ends, for our own fulfilment, is a product of the advance of science. In reality, they remain because of their own line of development in self-fulfilment, and not because they are useful to man. _ Both poetry and science have been bringing us to a realisation that all things exist, and are active primarily'for their own self-fulfilment. This applies to human beings as well as to the plants about

US. Science is knowingness or knowledge. It implies progressive activity in getting to know, and it gives us access to - the sequences of Nature. It is on the fidelity of Nature that we rely, and ive use the natural forces for our everyday wants. In science the intellect and reasoning powers are principally at work; but we are not really aroused to wonder, admiration, or love. We are studying with a view to classifying, labelling, and understanding how Nature acts. In' scientific study one looks at a flower —a lily—and describes its order, veining, structure of stem, and other characteristics. What has poetry to say when it confronts a lily; “.Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” ■_ Thus the difference between science and poetry is seen. Science approaches the world, about by means,qf the intellect and the senses, And is unimaginative. Poetry, on the other hand, views everything in the light of emotion and imagination. Pacts are sublimed under the influence of poetry. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there was a tendency _ to regard things m Nature, both animals and plants, as existing for the feeding, clothing, and sheltering of man. All the different categories of animals and plants-were seen only as beneficial or harmful • to men in practical ways. But nowadays poetry is joining with science in saying that everything has a kinship with us. The philosophy of modern poetry is equally coming to be tbe attitude of modern science. Mrs Orr Campbell proposed a hearty vote of thanks to Miss King. SATURDAY’S OUTING. A fair number of members met on Saturday afternoon, when the Outdoor meeting was held at the Botanic Gardens under the leadership of Mr D. Leigh. The afternoon was gloriously fine and warm, the spring blooms were showing to advantage in many parts of the Gardens. A tour through the glasshouses with Mr Leigh to explain the unusual species’ was most instructive. In one house

begonia manicata of a beautiful shade of pink filled the middle section; while in another plants of hippiastium drew forth admiring comments. The flower stalk of this plant obtains its nourishment from the bulb and roots, and the handsome red flowers were growing on a leafless stalk. Primulas and cyclamen were in_ full bloom in a further house. An interesting primula was noted, which has two sets of chromosones, and was originally a hybrid, but it now breeds true. Last year many of the cyclamen were fragrant, but of these none has retained its sweet scent.

In the main palm house many varied plants were seen. The Abyssinian banana tree, with its enormous leaves, and a species of cocoanut similar to the tree of economic importance, which yields cocoanuts and oil, were noted. Ficus elastica, a rubber tree, though not the of commerce, was an interesting species. The sap is white, and after it has passed through water it becomes elastic and resembles crepe rubber. Of the palms, the nikau, the southernmost growing palm, and the rhapis,' the most northern species, were both growing in the house. The latter does not grow further north than the South of France. Palms are one of the most interesting tribes of vegetation. They supply a varied number of necessities in the life of mankind, including sago, starch, wax, sugar, vegetable ivory, and fibre. A short time was spent in studying the _ monkey-puzzle family, _ and four species were noted—arancaria bidwillii, from Australia, the true monkey-puzzle from Chile, the Norfolk Island pine, and A. Cunninghapiii, from Tasmania. Three other trees that Mr Leigh drew members’ attention to were the polygla, a large slirub with purplish flowers, which appears to be of the pea family, but on closer examination one finds dissimilarities between the two; corylopsis wjllmottiae, a beautiful Japanese plant with yellow catkins; and osmanthus delavayi, a small shrub covered with sweet-scented bloom.

The party was taken through tlje propagating houses, where members were shown the young seedlings and larger plants, growing in readiness for show in tlio Gardens later oil. Finally, rare trees in the Upper Gardens were pointed out, and members dispersed after an enjoyable outing.