THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 87 



transferred to a strong solution of permanganate of potash 

 until the pulpy part of the leaf can be washed out or removed 

 by brushing with a soft brush, leaving the veins. The second 

 method recommends treating the flowers for a time with one- 

 eighth strength nitric acid and when the tissue may be easily 

 brushed out placing them in weak ammonia. The speci- 

 mens may then be bleached with peroxide of hydrogen in sun- 

 light. For beginning experiments it would probably be best 

 to select leaves with stout veins since the process depends up- 

 on tearing down the green cells of the leaf by chemicals be- 

 fore the veins are affected. If any of our readers knows of a 

 better process than those given we shall be glad to publish it 

 for the benefit of all. 



Changed Views in Botany. — Ten or fifteen years ago, 

 the general idea conveyed by the word, botanist, was that of 

 an individual skilled in the methods of naming plants and ac- 

 tive in amassing a collection of dried plants for his herbarium. 

 The march of time, however, is fast leaving the mere plant 

 collector and plant namer in the rear. Once the species maker 

 was almost venerated ; now he is clearly on the defensive as a 

 wail from Dr. P. A. Rydberg in a recent number of Torreya 

 indicates. This versatile scientist writes : "Not long ago, all 

 botanical work done in this country was taxonomic work, US7 

 ually known as systematic botany, although much had, indeed, 

 little of "systematic" in it. Now it is different. Courses in 

 taxonomy are almost excluded from the curricula of many of 

 our coleges and universities, or if not excluded, so little es- 

 teemed that students are discouraged from entering upon them. 

 The taxonomist, whether a systematic botanist in the true 

 sense or a phytographer, is looked upon by phytogeog- 

 graphers, ecologists, physiologists, cytologists and morpho- 

 logists as of a lower grade of stuff; — as if it took a less fine 

 grain of brain to make a first class systematist than any other 

 kind of an ist." 



