VI. ON BOTANICAL COLLECTIONS AND 

 OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS 



THE only true foundation for biological knowledge is 

 laboratory or other practical study. This method, how- 

 ever, has an inherent defect in that, consisting as it 

 must in the investigation of more or less isolated topics 

 or types, the view it gives of the plant world is discon- 

 tinuous and poor in perspective. To realize the full 

 value of the study, these types need to be correlated 

 and located in the general system, thus contributing to 

 the formation of one complete and correct conception. 

 To this end, reading, lectures, and other formal instruc- 

 tion are of great aid, and these I have treated elsewhere 

 in this work ; but equally valuable is that comprehen- 

 sive survey of a large series of forms which is made 

 possible only by collections of living plants, of museum 

 specimens, of photographs or charts, of models, etc. 

 The study of these collections alone would have little 

 meaning, but every type thoroughly studied in the 

 laboratory becomes a centre of illumination for a zone 

 of related topics, which have a vivid significance and 

 interest entirely lacking without such study. 



By far the most valuable of all botanical illustrations 



95 



