THE VALUE OF A STUDY OF BOTANY. 8 & 
in physical science could give was obtainable from their 
proper study. 
The old notion that there is but one road to culture, and 
that the avenue of Latin and Greek, we know to be no longer 
tenable. Mr. Arnold, who has been called the chief 
apostle of culture, tells us that the meaning of culture is 
to know the best that has been thought and said in the world, 
and that the essence of culture is a criticism of life. If 
we accept this as an explanation of what is meant by cul- 
ture then I say with Huxley that “An army, without 
weapons of precision and with no particular base of oper- 
ation, might more hopefully enter upon a campaign on the 
Rhine, than a man devoid of a knowledge of what physical 
science has done in the last century, upon a criticism of 
life.’’ 
I approach this subject free from the bias which one 
might have who had been trained in sciences. My own 
education was in the classics. But I am a firm and devout 
believer in the intellectual and culture value of the study 
of the sciences. 
The intellectual value of the study of botany probably 
differs but little from that which attaches to the study of 
any of the natural sciences. The process which is employed 
is that of induction, and the student must exercise his 
faculties of observation and comparison. Having observed 
and compared, he draws general conclusions from the par- 
ticular cases. The mental discipline which this involves is 
very different from that which results from a study of the 
languages, or history, or mathematics. I can only repeat 
what has been many times pointed out by others, that in the 
study of languages and history the facts are accepted on 
the evidence of authority and tradition, while in mathemat- 
ics the student has given him a few simple and self-evident 
propositions from which he deduces certain necessary and 
definite conclusions. On the other hand, in the study of 
botany, zoology, and other of the natural sciences, nothing 
is taken for granted; the student observes for himself the 
