THE TASK OF AMERICAN BOTANISTS. 305 



THE TASK OF AMERICAN BOTANISTS.* 



By VV. G. FAELOW, 



PROFESSOR OF CRYPT0GA1IIC BOTANY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



IN discussing the question, What sort of botanical investigation is 

 needed in this country ? one might consider two things : First, 

 what are the special problems which from their nature can be studied 

 better in this country than elsewhere ; and, secondly, what kind of in- 

 vestigation is best adapted to the present state of our botanical estab- 

 lishments and the capacities of the botanists cf this country ? In 

 the former case, we are simply to endeavor to contribute something 

 new to the stock of the world's knowledge. In the latter ease we shall 

 attempt also to raise the standard of work in this country to that of 

 countries in which botany has reached its highest development. Of 

 these two considerations, the second is, perhaps, the more urgent, 

 because, granting that there are botanical problems which could be 

 solved more easily by botanists living in this country than by Euro- 

 peans, they will remain unsolved unless our botanists have the time, 

 the means, and the preliminary training for the work. Let me men- 

 tion a case in point. For many years, botanists wished to know the 

 development of Azolla, a genus not found in Europe, but represented 

 in this country by a species common in several districts comparatively 

 near some of the centers of botanical instruction. Naturally, we 

 should have looked to our own botanists for the study of this interest- 

 ing subject ; and it is not flattering to our national pride that the de- 

 velopment of our own species of Azolla was first made out, not by an 

 American, but by a Swede working at a disadvantage. Other instances 

 might be given in which questions that ought to have been settled 

 by Americans were solved by foreigners. If we are behind some 

 other nations in the quantity and quality of our botanical investiga- 

 tions, what is the reason ? Possibly it is not the fault of our botanists, 

 but rather the peculiarity of the conditions under which they are 

 placed ; and it would be well, before going further, to consider some of 

 the difficulties which are in the way of those who would like to pursue 

 botanical investigations, for, if some of them are inevitable in the 

 present stage of our scientific development, it may be that others are 

 of our own creation and might be removed. 



If, then, we are not doing as much in the way of investigation as 

 other nations, it must be either through lack of inclination, lack of 

 time, lack of means, or lack of the requisite training. I am not in- 

 clined to believe that a lack of inclination is responsible for much of 

 the trouble. We have our full share of persons who prefer an inact- 

 ive self-culture to active work in any special direction, but we also 



* Read before the American Society of Naturalists, Philadelphia, December 29, 1886. 

 vol. xxxi. 20 



