i86 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



necessarily confined to those indigenous to a zone fifteen degrees 

 in width, extending across one small continent and half way across 

 another, together with introduced species growing under more or 

 less abnormal conditions in gardens and conservatories. As the 

 science progresses it is becoming more and more apparent that 

 many of the generalizations based upon investigations carried on 

 under such circumstances are incapable of general application, 

 and that before a permanent foundation for the science can be 

 laid, research along all lines must be extended to include the most 

 highly developed forms, in the primitive habitat of the plant king- 

 dom, in the tropics. The principles of the relations of plants and 

 their relations to the animal kingdom may only be attained by 

 the study of undisturbed communities of plants in the natural 

 groupings resultant from the struggle for existence. Here are to 

 be found such rapidity of growth and metabolism that the adapt- 

 ive" possibilities of the organism reach their highest expression. 



The centers of botanical activity in Europe are so far removed 

 from a tropical flora that only occasionally does a transatlantic 

 investigator find time and opportunity to extend his researches to 

 include normal tropical forms. To do this he must vi^-it Buiten- 

 zorg or some other garden nearly half way round the world. 



The center of botanical activity in America has at its very 

 doors a tropical region (in the West Indies), unsurpassed in every 

 feature, which may be reached in four or five days from any im- 

 portant city in the country. The establishment of a laboratory 

 and garden in any convenient locality would not only be of un- 

 told value in the general development of botanical science, but it 

 would place within easy reach of the investigator or graduate stu- 

 dent in American universities facilities unequaled by that of any 

 other country. 



The European botanist would also find a laboratory in the 

 American tropics much more easily accessible than those of the 

 antipodes. The foundation of such an institution would be of 

 direct benefit to the greater number of active botanists, and would 

 go far toward making America the scene of the greatest develop- 

 ment of the biology of one of the two great groups of living organ- 

 isms. 



A FELICITOUS tribute was paid to Darwin at the opening of the English 

 Church Congress in Shrewsbury, the philosopher's birthplace, by the Bishop 

 of Lichfield, presiding, who said that "all members of the Church of Christ 

 owed a great debt of gratitude to Charles Darwin. He had simplified and 

 interpreted, as a true man of science would be anxious to do, the niethods 

 which have been pursued by the Great Almighty Creator in his works, and 

 in so doing he had added to the dignity of the conception which they were 

 able to form of Him who made us and all the world." 



