Control of Evolution and Life Processes in Plants 



ALBERT F. BLAKESLEE 



AS A college student I was often driven to employ a not uncommon 

 technique of asking questions when I was unprepared to recite. 

 This must have had a measure of success since one of my professors who 

 was unable to say anything more favorable in my behalf, wrote as a 

 recommendation that I asked intelligent questions. I feel impelled to 

 use the same technique here since I feel woefully unprepared to con- 

 tribute much in the way of explanation of the mechanisms of chemical 

 control of cell division in plants — the topic originally assigned me for 

 this symposium. I can, however, think of many questions I should like 

 to have answered regarding these important processes. 



A question is the basis of every research. To be fruitful, however, a 

 question need not be inteUigent, if by intelligent is meant approved by 

 conventional judgments. Such conventional questions will often be found 

 to have been already answered. It is the unusual that most easily arouses 

 our curiosity. For this reason botanical gardens generally feature exotic 

 plants and not the native flora. The commonplace— what is continuafly 

 happening under our observation or continually not happening — al- 

 though more fundamental than rare occurrences, is usually considered 

 as an axiom and not as a matter for inquiry. Unconventional questions 

 and those which would generally be called foolish may be the most 

 rewarding. Laymen who are unhampered by too great familiarity with 

 one's field of research and stereotyped ways of thinking often ask the 

 most penetrating and suggestive questions though they generally apolo- 

 gize for asking what they think may be a foolish question when they 

 know so httle about the subject. It is one of these foolish questions 

 which has been asked me on several independent occasions that I wish 

 to pass on to you as an introduction to my discussion of the control of 



