locality within the regions covered by the accumulations of the last Glacial era. So greatly are students of the Pleistocene ossiferous beds influenced by what is known of the interglacial deposits and their organic remains, that many do not now hesitate to correlate with those beds the old ossiferous and implement-bearing alluvia which lie altogether outside of glaciated regions. In France, where the relation of Pleistocene alluvia has been especially canvassed, these alluvia have been also included among interglacial deposits. M. Boule also, in the Revue d'Anthropologie, 1889, correlates the Palæolithic cave and river deposits of France with those of other countries, and shows that they must be of interglacial age. He is satisfied that in France there is evidence of three glacial and two well-marked interglacial eras. The oldest of the Palæolithic stages of Mortillet culminated during the last interglacial era, while the more recent Palæolithic stages coincided with the last great development of glacier ice. The Palæolithic age, so far as Europe is concerned, came to a close during this last cold phase of the Glacial period.
Interesting as is the development of the climatic and geographical changes of which our Palæolithic predecessors were the witnesses, the clearing up of the history of Pleistocene times is not the only end that workers in this field have in view. Prof. Geikie, therefore, closed his address with a hope that the definite knowledge of the conditions of the Pleistocene period and of the causes which gave rise to them would lead to the better understanding of the climatic conditions of still earlier ages; the success with which other problems have been attacked by geologists forbidding him to doubt that ere long we shall have done much to dispel some of the mystery still enveloping the question of geological climates.
| THE BOTANIC GARDENS AT KEW. |
By FREDERIK A. FERNALD.
IT is now about two hundred years—the exact date is not known—since Lord Capel laid out the garden that has become a scientific institution of world-wide fame and influence. Switzer says, in his quaint Ichnographia Rustica, 1718, "The earliness with which this lord appeared in gardening merits a very great place in my history, and a better pen than mine to draw it." On the death of Lord Capel, in 1696, the estate of Kew House, including the garden, passed into the hands of his son-in-law, who added to its importance for a while by making it the headquarters of English astronomy. It was afterward leased by Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of George II. The garden was made a scientific es-
