Notes and Comment. 255 



attested by information reaching this journal, and that the 

 beginner with a training in exact methods of experimentation 

 would find opportunities for v ork equal to those in any phase of 

 botany is bevond question. In addition to the tasks of instruct- 

 ion and development of the principles underlying physiologic- 

 al science, there also may fall to him the task of applying 

 botanical information in genetics, horticulture, agriculture, 

 soil phvsics, etc. That the Adams Fund for agricultural research 

 in the experiment stations has attained only a fraction of its 

 possible usefulness due directly to a lack of skilled experimenters 

 to take up its problems is a matter of common knowledge. 



Bv the very nature of the problems the ph)siologist must 

 be prepared for a wider range of original activity than is the 

 worker in any other phase of the subject. He must hold him- 

 self in readiness to go far afield; to build cantilever bridges 

 the farther end of which may rest well within the domain of 

 phvsics and chemistry. It was by such methods that DeVries 

 established the conception of isotonic coefficients, and Pfeffer 

 made his experiments in osmosis, both discoveries being no less 

 vital to ph sics and chemistry than to botany. The acknow- 

 ledged desirabilit cf the meeting and conjunction of the separate 

 sciences (if there are such things) is one which may be well 

 illusfrated by the fact that the candidate with a wisely chosen 

 subject may find in his minors, methods and information es- 

 sential to the development of his main theme. The results of 

 a research of this kind v. ill be likely to interest a wide audience. 

 It is thus to be seen that v, hile research in physiology may make 

 heavy drafts upon the time and energy of the young investigator, 

 vet his re.- ard is that of a wide horizon, and of countless oppor- 

 tunities for profitable cooperation and contribution to the ad- 

 vance of biological science. 



The nine titles of interest to botanical science in addition 

 to the tentwy credited to the departments of botany are all of a 

 ph'siolgicaol character. Two of the twenty ar physiological 

 making it appear that the student who desires to make a physio- 

 logical study of plants must usually seek his guidance and facil- 

 ities elsewhere than in the existing departments of botany. 

 It is gratifying to note that this abnormal condition is becoming 

 recognized and \\ hile but two universities have rezentiy made 



