THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 59 



by aiding technical schools, institutions of higher learning, 

 libraries, scientific research, hero funds, useful publications 

 and by such other agencies an'd' means as shall from time to 

 time be found appropriate." Just here is where we are in- 

 clined to put up a few lightning rods — or should we now say 

 antennae — for ourselves. If men of means have at last de- 

 cided to come to the aid of struggling agencies for good in 

 the community, we feel sure that among the first to receive 

 such assistance must be those publications that are endeavor- 

 ing to foster an interest in botany, nature study and the other 

 outdoor pursuits that lie at the very foundation of the material 

 success of this country. The proposition to incorporate this 

 new Carnagie idea however, does not come as very much of 

 a surprise. For some years signs of a growing interest in 

 the spread of useful knowledge has been manifested by 

 wealthy men. As instances may be cited the bequest of about 

 thirty thousand dollars for the upkeep of the Lloyd Library 

 of Cincinnati maintained for the advancement of botanical 

 science, and the founding of a publishing house in Chicago 

 with a million dollar endowment to aid in issuing useful books 

 which otherwise could not be issued because the demand for 

 such matter is still too small to justify its being printed for 

 profit. The general public is not yet alive to the delights and 

 advantages of scientific studies. On this point, Dr. Richard- 

 son in an address delivered at the Minneapolis meeting of the 

 American Chemical Society exprssed himself thus : "Con- 

 sidered by itself, science and the scientific method are the most 

 satisfactory and satisfying things in the possession of the 

 human mind. The unfortunate thing — it can not be classed 

 as a criticism — about science is that it has left the multitude 

 untouched. With the results of science and the scientific 

 method on every hand forming so large a part of our splendid 

 materialistic civilization, nevertheless the great, the over- 

 whelming majority of people are ignorant of the methods, 



