THE TASK OF AMERICAN BOTANISTS. 309 



short the time for other work. In Germany they manage the thing 

 better. The ordinary laboratory work is in the hands of assistants, 

 and the professor, besides his lectures, gives his time to advanced 

 students and original work. The question is, Can our colleges pay for 

 more assistants ? They have hard enough work to pay the professors, 

 as a rule, but if the public could be made to see the real need of assist- 

 ants, and recognize the fact that a professor's salary is not large enough 

 for him to pay for assistance out of his own pocket, perhaps, sooner 

 or later, the money might be provided. As far as the professors and 

 instructors in schools and colleges are concerned, they are not so well 

 able to do original work as formerly, owing to the more laborious 

 methods of modern instruction ; but it may be that we are in a stage 

 of transition, and that before long the possibility of overdoing instruc- 

 tion to the detriment of research may be felt by those in charge of 

 institutions of learning. 



It may be suggested as a possible solution of the difficulty that 

 there should be some professors for teaching and others for research. 

 That is all very well, if you are not going to give ail the money to the 

 one who does the teaching. There is a tendency to regard any salary, 

 no matter how small, as large enough for one who is engaged in 

 research, and the reason usually assigned is absurd, viz., that investi- 

 gators prefer investigation to any other work. It seems preposterous 

 that the fact that a man's heart is in his work should be made a pre- 

 text for paying him less for his work ! There are those who prefer 

 teaching to research, and are they paid any the less because they like 

 their teaching ? Of the two, the instructor and the investigator, the 

 latter has the more frequent professional calls on his purse even in 

 well-equipped colleges, and statistics are wanting to show that investi- 

 gators have smaller families to provide for than teachers. 



Having considered some of the difficulties in the way of research, 

 we can return to the original question. What sort of botanical inves- 

 tigation is needed in this country ? Whatever may be the case in 

 physics and chemistry, it is a fact that the study of natural history in 

 any country passes through stages of development much the same 

 everywhere. In a new country the first work must be almost entirely 

 descriptive and classificatory ; and, when this work has reached a suffi- 

 ciently advanced stage, histology, physiology, and study of life- 

 histories assume more and more importance. In most European 

 countries the first stage has been long past, except as far as some of 

 the lowest forms of plants are concerned, and the greater part of the 

 best work of France and Germany at the present day relates to physi- 

 ological and developmental subjects. Where do we stand? The 

 question is important, because there is not infrequently a tendency to 

 assume that work in this country is of value only in so far as it is on 

 the same plane and of the same kind as work in Europe. We must be 

 contented to wait a little while, and we do harm rather than good if 



