EDITORIAL 



^ O O ^ 



Changes in the fashions are not, as one may be indined 

 to say at first thought, confined to wearing apparel. They are 

 well-nigh universal and have invaded botany as well as other 

 things. It is no longer fashionable to make an herbarium and 

 the craze for species making is decidedly on the wane. One 

 who does not look much beyond the present or who fails to 

 Contemplate the past, can scarcely realize the changes that 

 have been made and are still taking place in the science of bot- 

 any. A generation ago taxonomy and plant distribution held 

 the center of the stage. Our region was still being explored, 

 new species were being discovered and new names were need- 

 ed. As soon as the flowering plants became fairly well known 

 there succeeded an era in which the study of celh and tissues, 

 of gross structure and the behavior of plants under various 

 conditions was uppermost, and now this is rapidly giving place 

 to ecology and plant breeding. The flowering plants are now 

 so well known that comparatively little of importance can be 

 gained from their further study and those who are not inter- 

 ested in ecology and eugenics are turning their attention to the 

 simpler plants. This is well shown in the range of papers pre- 

 sented before our various botanical societies. At a session of 

 such a society of national scope, recently, out of the 41 papers 

 presented 34 related to the lower orders of plant life 



* * * 



According to the latest report of the Department of Agri- 

 culture, about a million and a half pounds of vegetable and 

 flower seeds were sent out last year to a more or less grateful 

 constituency by our representatives in the national government. 

 There was a time, when seeds of valuable varieties or seeds 

 true to name were hard to get and when even the seeds of com- 

 mon garden plants were welcomed by the dwellers in the re- 

 mote parts of our country, but now that we have a large num- 



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