42 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



Now suppose, instead of having a single plant, which we 

 have taken as an illustration, we have many plants before 

 us. Our first duty is to compare them and bring out the 

 points of likeness and of difference ; this is the work of 

 Systematic Botany* It endeavors to discern the relation- 

 ships of plants. The word relationship is no longer a mere 

 figure of speech. It is to the science of to-day a definite 

 expression of an existing fact. Looking around and 

 behind us, we trace these affinities. The maples which 

 shade the Shaw grounds to-day came from ancestors which 

 were maples of the later geological periods. In like man- 

 ner the chestnuts, the oaks, and the elms may be carried 

 back into geologic times, and we find their traces in the 

 strata lying somewhat west of where we are now gathered. 



Is there a grander field of thought than that on which 

 the past and present meet? I know I am right when I say 

 that you will not hamper your Director when he sets stu- 

 dents at work investigating questions in regard to these 

 relationships. Some of these questions belong to what has 

 been unhappily called " pure M science. It is to be regret- 

 ted that the word pure was ever used in this connection, 

 because it seems to indicate that there is something con- 

 taminating in the touch of that which is its antithesis, 

 ordinarily termed applied science. The fact is, all science 

 is sooner or later applied, and of no science is this more 

 exactly true than of Botany, which has innumerable appli- 

 cations to all phases of human life. 



I pass now to one or two of the practical applications of 

 our science. I ask you first, where can one better study or 

 set students about studying an improvement in our food 

 plants than right here? If you look for a moment you 

 will remember that by cultivation, by selection, by hybrid- 

 izing, by the thousand appliances which man has within 

 his grasp to-day, we can guide plants in almost any direc- 

 tion we please. The laws of heredity, the laws of variety 

 are becoming, thanks to the students of Biology, better 

 understood day by day, and they can be utilized. Let the 



