DARWIN MEMORIAL. 81 



DARWIN AS A BOTANIST. 



BY LESTER F. WARD. 



Appointed by the committee to furnish a brief sketch on this 

 occasion of the contributions of Charles Darwin to the science of 

 plants, I have purposely chosen the title, "Darwin as a Botanist," 

 in order to emphasize the contrast which may be drawn between 

 different classes of botanists, and to do what I can to accustom the 

 public mind to associate with the terms botanist and botany certain 

 great fields of investigation which are now rarely suggested by 

 these words. 



If I had entitled my paper : Darwin's researches into the phenom 

 ena of the vegetable kingdom, I fear it might not have occurred to 

 some of you that this great investigator was a botanist, as he is not 

 generally known as such. Yet I fail to see why the science of bot 

 any is not fully entitled to receive its share of the dignity and the 

 luster which Darwin's investigations have reflected upon biology in 

 general. 



The popular idea of botany, however, is very different from this. 

 Not ignorant people alone, but scientific men as well, place all 

 botanists under two general classes: " Field Botanists" and " Closet 

 Botanists." 



The field botanist is one who, being passionately fond of plants 

 and having mastered the rudiments of botany and become familiar 

 with the names and classification of plants, searches the country 

 for new and rare species, and for new localities for old ones, and 

 makes large collections. Success in these objects is his triumph, 

 and occasionally becoming the proud discoverer of hitherto un 

 known forms of vegetable life, he finds the scientific world quick 

 and generous in awarding him due credit. 



The closet botanist is one who, disdaining the boyish pursuit of 

 flowers, devotes himself to the study of the characters of plants as 

 revealed by the herbarium specimens which the field botanist so 

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