HITCHCOCK: STUDY OF THE LOCAL FLORA 255 



abundant material close at hand to which he may devote his 

 spare time and from which he may derive the training he seeks. 

 Science will be the gainer by the facts discovered and arranged; 

 the worker will be the gainer by the training and experience. 

 How the training and experience may be most advantageously 

 obtained will now be examined in detail. Let us suppose that 

 one of us has become interested in the genus Aster as represented 

 in our flora. Here is an opportunity for a genuine taxonomic 

 elaboration of a difficult group, but limited in such a way that 

 all the material may be studied in a fresh as well as in a pre- 

 served condition. Collections of herbarium material will of 

 course be secured, because a direct comparison of species is thus 

 made possible. But the worker has the distinct advantage of 

 being able at intervals to consult the living plants and thus to 

 test the conclusions drawn from the herbarium. First he must 

 become familiar with the plants he wishes to study. He will 

 attempt to identify the species by one or more of the standard 

 manuals. Some of the species will fall in place easily; others 

 will be referred with doubt. At first he will be inclined to 

 assume that the author he is following knows all about the 

 genus Aster and has all our species properly placed under the 

 names given in the manual. He may even attempt to distort 

 a description in order that it may fit a given plant. All of us 

 who have used manuals have passed through this stage. But 

 to do really constructive work an investigator must free himself 

 from the shackles of tradition, from the repressing weight of 

 authority. So long as the student accepts without question 

 statements in manuals, or elsewhere for that matter, which do 

 not appear to accord with the facts as he sees them, so long will 

 he be impeded in his efforts, so long will he fail to reach that 

 freedom of mind necessary for unbiased investigation. Nothing 

 has so hampered progress as the inertia of authority. This 

 does not mean that we should not utilize to the fullest extent 

 the results of the work of others. It does mean that we should 

 meet problems with an unprejudiced judgment, unbiased by 

 tradition, unhampered by authority. 



