26 A History of Botany, 1860-1900 



its issues, and it was in no small degree to their influence 

 and effort that its success must be attributed. 



With the inclusion of botany among other sciences in 

 the curriculum of university study, and the coincident 

 extension of facilities for research in the establishment of 

 well-equipped laboratories, there came a thorough re- 

 organization of methods. Micro-chemical analysis was 

 carefully studied ; new reagents were discovered, which 

 enabled determinations of composition to be made on 

 amounts of material till then held to be far too small for 

 accurate observation. The application of staining re- 

 agents was very carefully studied ; the somewhat empirical 

 methods of using them which marked their introduction 

 gave place to others which combined colour-differentiation 

 with demonstration of chemical composition. The whole 

 art of microscopic technique was carried to a pitch of 

 perfection which seemed utterly visionary before 1860. 

 The introduction of mechanical appliances was attended 

 with great success ; the perfection of the microtome for 

 cutting thin sections had an importance hardly surpassed 

 by the coincident improvements brought about in the 

 microscope. The introduction of other instruments, parti- 

 cularly into physiological research, was another very 

 important feature of the inquiries of the period. 



During the early years of the time under review the 

 great amount of attention directed to laboratory and 

 lecture-room seemed to crowd into the background the 

 older modes of study associated with the botanic garden. 

 Indeed some thought the days of the latter as part of the 

 educational mechanism were over. Possibly enthusiasm 

 for the new studies was allowed to go too far ; happily, 

 towards the end of the century, wiser counsels prevailed 

 and garden and laboratory were united closely in the 

 prosecution of study and research. Indeed the greater 

 utilization of the resources of the garden was one of the 



