American Botany. ft? 



to those who make the forest not only the temple of nature but 

 the servant of man, clothing the watersheds, checking the 

 floods, and providing him with houses and furniture. How can 

 one catalogue and classify such diversity i* All these aims and 

 enthusiasms of I{uropean botanists are cultivated here. This is 

 natural, for many American botanists received their training and 

 their greatest inspiration from German scholars. It is too soon, 

 and perhaps the world has become too small, to expect America 

 to produce a botanv, any more than a painting or music or drama 

 of its own. It has its share to contribute to the science, the art, 

 and the literature of the world. If it do this well, it will fulfill 

 its chief dut\'. 



The mechanical means which it has developed in labora* 

 tory, experiment-house, apparatus, and journals, costing so 

 much time, thought, and money for mere operation, must not be 

 allowed to be ends in themselves,* though keenlv appreciated 

 and even occasionally taken back as models to Europe. And 

 that idea of usefulness is the most intelligent which recognizes 

 the race to have been most benefited, during the centuries of its 

 development, by those who studied nature with no other motive 

 than to learn her secrets whatever thev might be. whether of 

 lightning, steam, or the evolution of living things. The main 

 things are the spirit of devotion to one's science, and that train- 

 ing which founds one's studies firmlv and guides them truly. 

 On the enthusiasm and on the education of .\merican botanists 

 depend their present achievements and their future usefulness. 

 The University of Wisconsin 



and Stanford University, California. 



