THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 75 



zine, will doubtless be able to enlighten us on this point. In 

 some respects the readers of this magazine remind us of this 

 old society. We seldom ask for information on an obscure 

 point without getting a reply, and as for mistakes, we have 

 never yet been able to print a misstatement of fact and get away 

 with it. Even a mis-spelled word will often bring a shower of 

 letters if the correction seems important. We call attention to 

 these things here for the benefit of certain new readers who 

 might otherwise be some time in finding out that one of the 

 best features of this magazine is formed by the short notes 

 which anybody can contribute and which are often suggested 

 by the notes of others. There are altogether too many botan- 

 ists who think no fact is important unless several pages of type 

 are necessary to elucidate it. 



* * * 



The world has long been inclined to poke fun at its concep- 

 tion of the botanist who is usually represented as an amiable 

 elderly gentleman equipped with manual, trowel, vasculum, and 

 lens, wandering about the fields, ogling the flowers through a 

 glass, and so intent on his hobby as to be oblivious to all else. 

 The devotees of modern botany, too, absorbed in the study of 

 cells, chromosomes, and unit characters, and forgetting the 

 foundation upon which even their studies are based, are wont 

 to look with some disdain on the mere collector and namer of 

 plants. Time was, however, when he who knew the names of 

 plants was the only person thought worthy to bear the title of 

 botanist, and though the days are forever gone in which the 

 taxonomist was chief, there is still much to be said in favor of 

 the analysis of flowers and the making of an herbarium ; of the 

 times when botany was spoken of as "the amiable science" and 

 attracted to its study all intelligent lovers of nature. In these 

 more degenerate days, most of the botanists are made within 

 the walls of college or university. Often they develop without 

 ever seeing plants in their entirety and are brought up on sec- 



