THE ANNUAL MEETING. 123 



in botany. What is morphology? I will show you by referring to these charts 

 which illustrate the various forms of roots, the numerous forms of stems, 

 some of which are often mistaken for roots or leaves, and the numerous forms 

 of leaves. 



From 18G2 to 1875 in this country what Gray calls "How plants behave,'* 

 may be said to be the dominant feature in the science of botany. From 1875, 

 with the appearance of the grand text-book of Julius Sachs, vegetable physiology 

 has been considered the leading thing in botany. All of these different phases 

 of the subject have their value, and none of them should be ignored. 



Botany is yet by some too often placed with the fashionable studies which 

 give accomplishment to young school girls. In the new botany, plants are 

 dissected and all of the parts studied with simple and compound microscopes. 

 Students are at once set to observing for themselves. They study plant growth. 

 They study the various tissues, their relation to the soil, air, heat, moisture, 

 how they feed and grow, how the sap circulates, how it is assimilated. They 

 study the effects of gravitation, the movements of plants, liow insects are 

 attracted by showy petals and nectar, which are mere advertisements to allure 

 and pay the insects for fertilizing the flowers. They study the arrangements 

 by which cross fertilization is secured in plants, and the devices by which 

 unwelcome insects and other animals are kept away. They study how certain 

 plants entrap and devour insects and worms. They study how plants twine 

 and climb by tendrils, roots and leaves; how nature sows seeds and sometimes 

 buries them iti the ground. [The above were fully illustrated and examples 

 given.] They study and compare leaves and buds and branches, and learn to 

 distinguish one young tree from another by this means. In a word, they learn 

 to see by constantly trying to see. They learn to experiment by constantly 

 trying experiments and carefully noting the results. 



Botany relates almost entirely to the science of horticulture so far as any 

 relations exist. There are countless numbers of plants in great variety. 

 Without botany they would be in hopeless confusion. The study of botany as 

 now pursued in the best schools cultivates the analytic and sympathetic powers 

 of the mind, i. e., it trains the mind to analyze objects and how to compare 

 and classify them. Professor Henslow says " Experience has satisfied me that 

 structural botany may be more conveniently and extensively employed than 

 any other branch of natural science for strengthening the observant faculties 

 and expanding the reasoning powers of children in all classes of society." 

 Better observing and reasoning powers are admitted by all to be valuable stock 

 for any one engaged in any department of horticulture. 



Baron Von Liebig said: '"The scientific basis of agriculture (of course in- 

 cluding horticulture) embraces a knowledge of all the conditions of vegetable 

 life, of the origin of elements of plants, and of the source from which they 

 derive their nourishment." 



Professor Lindley said: "Good agriculture and horticulture are founded 

 upon the laws of vegetable physiology. No man deserves the name of gar- 

 dener who is not master of everything known as to the way in which plants 

 feed, breathe, grow, digest, and have their being." 



Botanists — and botanists only — are employed to explore countries for new 

 plants which are valuable for their beauty of foliage or flowers, or valuable for 

 fruit, for grain or forage. Descriptions of plants for dictionaries or other pur- 

 poses are not possible without some knowledge of botany. No one can now 

 give a good description of a new apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry, raspberry, 

 strawberry, potato, Indian corn, wheat, or clover, without knowing consider- 



