282 B. M. DUGGAE 



found that energetics, photosynthesis and chlorophyll action 

 alone are those which have in this country invited relatively little 

 consideration, although investigations now in progress — the 

 preliminaries of which we have heard — afford indication that the 

 photosynthetic mechanism will not long remain fundamentally 

 unexplored. 



We have scarcely yet admitted a confidence in American bo- 

 tanical research, but confidence is desirable, and an appreciation 

 of whatever may be fundamental is better. Perhaps, more even 

 than we are willing to acknowledge, we have accepted past Ger- 

 man superiority and applied it to the present. Let me point 

 out one instance. Although we all revere the memory of Dr. 

 Eduard Strasburger, and know full well the debt of American 

 cytology to his influence upon American students, yet it seems 

 to me that we do not realize or adequately emphasize the small- 

 est fraction of the debt which he owed to his American students. 

 Strasburger himself recognized it and declared it. When we 

 then recall the work done in Europe by Campbell, Humphrey, 

 Mottier, Harper, Fairchild, Swingle, Chamberlain, Davis, Allen, 

 Overton and a host of others who gave to their teacher inspira- 

 tion and knowledge of techique, while displaying powers of care- 

 ful observation and deduction, we begin to see that American 

 botanists have not been takers merely, but givers in full measure. 

 Moreover, if you have worked in that atmosphere and have per- 

 sonally felt the spirit and seen the material advances left in the 

 wake of the American student, there can be no question that this 

 German laboratory profited well from its American association. 

 It matters not that the old cytology seems to be rounding out 

 its existence; the record of accomplishment is full, and the promise 

 for future confidence in a world competition maybe abundantly 

 sustained. American physiological literature will doubtless 

 never again fail to receive the recognition which is justified. 

 We have no desire to be critical of the science in other countries, 

 and much may be said in extenuation of the circumstance that 

 our experiment station publications are most frequently disre- 

 garded. The very diversity of the material offered has made 

 adequate consideration difficult; but outside of such cases it is 



