THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 13 



tube ; the stamens b\" means of the filaments which curve 

 outward in a half circle, and the stigmas b3' means of an 

 elastic region at the base of the st^de. The stjde, there- 

 fore, shortens by shrinking, but the stamens cannot do 

 this and the filaments must bend outward, nature having 

 formed a spherical bulge at the base of the corolla to per- 

 mit this. The illustration shows the corolla laid open, 

 with the stamen ring withdrawn into it. 



THE BOTANIST AND THE PUBLIC. 



There is, perhaps, no science which seems to the aver- 

 age man so futile. The tiame "Botanist" is to those who 

 know^ least about it, almost synonymous with that of a 

 "mild and harmless visionary." He does no harm to any- 

 body, they would say, and, under their breath, add that 

 he does no good either. Yet this same average man eats 

 vegetable food daily; he drinks beverages of vegetable or- 

 igin, solaces himself with vegetable narcotics, depends up- 

 on vegetable textiles for many of his clothes, uses wooden 

 articles for all maimer of purposes ; he is liable to fall a 

 victim to diseases of veget^able origin which he will tr\" to 

 cure bj' the help of vegetable drugs. Why, if this be so, 

 (and the average man can hardly be ignorant of it), does 

 he take so unfavorable a view of the student of those or- 

 ganisms vvdiich are the very mainspring of his life ? I can- 

 not help thinking that the botatists are in a measure to 

 blame. In the past, perhaps, more than now, they have 

 entrenched themselves behind a barrier of terminology 

 and make little endeavor to show that many of the terms 

 are in themselves an evil. Accordingly the conclusion is 

 that the botanist sets store by repulsive trifles and is, 

 therefore, worthy of contempt. — Professor Bower in Jour- 

 nal of the Pharmaceutical Society. 



