THE TASK OF AMERICAN BOTANISTS. 313. 



whom we can not get rid of, because they really have no other amuse- 

 ment. But the botanist has a slight twinge of conscience when he 

 thinks that the kinds of amateurs of which I have spoken are tolerated 

 mainly in the hope, sweet but prolonged, that they may contribute 

 funds to some botanical endowment. But, alas! the gold-mills of the 

 amateurs grind slowly, and they grind exceeding small. The large 

 sums seldom come from amateurs, but generally from hard-headed 

 business men who do not pretend to be botanists, but who, with a lib- 

 erality which does infinite credit to us as a nation, give their money 

 for the public good. It is superfluous for botanists to express their 

 admiration of this class of liberal men. We more than admire them 

 we live on them ! 



But, fortunately for botany in this country, we have many ama- 

 teurs of another class. We have many men and women, rich in intelli- 

 gence, but usually not rich in money. They are scattered all over the 

 country. They are to be found on the coast of New England, in the 

 smaller towns of the West and South, and in the still more recently 

 settled coast of the Pacific. The time which they can spare from 

 their necessary and not unfrequently arduous occupations is given 

 with enthusiasm to botanical pursuits. The spare money which they 

 can command is spent on botanical books which they read, Their col- 

 lections do not lie idle on the shelves. It is such amateurs as these of 

 which we may justly be proud, and it is by their labors that a large, 

 if not the largest, share of our botanical investigations must be made 

 in the near future, and it is of the greatest importance that their 

 energy and enthusiasm should not be misdirected. In the remoter 

 districts, as I have said, the absorbing work, for some time to come, 

 must be the collecting of specimens and the accumulation of field- 

 notes. In the older parts of the country, including even the Missis- 

 sippi Valley, it seems to me that the rising generation would make the 

 best use of their opportunities by working out some of the many im- 

 portant questions of histology, and in studying the life-histories of 

 different plants, more especially cryptogams. But the main point is, 

 not to attempt to do too much. The thorough investigation of a 

 small point has a definite value, and does credit to the investigator, 

 but elaborate monographs and far-reaching physiological investiga- 

 tions are only of value when well done, and it is mild praise to say of 

 a man that he has done his work " pretty well, considering," for the 

 really wise man would have considered what he could do well as dis- 

 tinguished from what he could not do well. 



But you will probably think that this paper is not like a ball of 

 twine, which, however much it may be twisted and snarled, really has 

 an end. There is much more which I should like to say on the sub- 

 ject ; as it is, I have tried to avoid particular specifications as to the 

 subjects of research, which would be interesting only to botanists, but 

 to state broadly some of the difficulties in the way of botanical re- 



