HITCHCOCK: STUDY OF THE LOCAL FLORA 251 



BOTANY. — Taxonomic botany and the Washington botanist. 1 

 A. S. Hitchcock, Bureau of Plant Industry. 



Of the 162 members of this society practically all are pro- 

 fessional botanists or are professionally interested in some phase 

 of botany. Furthermore most of the members are in the 

 Government service. We are all aware that scientists in the 

 employ of the Government are engaged upon special problems. 

 They become specialists and all their official time is spent upon 

 investigations directly connected with their specialty. Some 

 members, particularly the older ones, have entered the service 

 from professorships, but a large number have become members 

 of this society soon after being graduated from College. The 

 botanist who teaches is compelled by circumstances to keep in 

 touch with the advance along all lines of botanical research. 

 The same is true of many botanists connected with experiment 

 stations, and may be true of a few botanists unconnected with the 

 two classes of institutions mentioned. But how many members 

 of this society are so situated that in the discharge of their 

 official duties they are brought in contact with all the chief 

 lines of botanical science? The number is indeed small. A 

 teacher may specialize, but a specialist rarely retains his grasp 

 upon general botany. Some of us were teachers before enter- 

 ing the Government service, but I venture to say that few of us 

 have retained the impetus acquired from previous training in 

 general botany. The condition then is this: We are a society 

 of specialists and a large proportion of us are young men who 

 from choice or necessity have entered upon a specialty soon 

 after leaving college, often before we have had the time to lay a 

 foundation in general botany broader than that given by com- 

 paratively elementary courses. 



It is not my purpose to discuss the merits of general versus 

 special training. We must accept conditions as they are and 

 better them if we can. I am sure that all of us welcome oppor- 

 tunities for familiarizing ourselves with the work which is being 



1 Address of the retiring president of the Botanical Society of Washington, 

 delivered March 4, 1917. 



