470 RODGERS III 



the New York Botanical Garden. Other men of the leadership stature of 

 Torrey and Gray in taxonomic botany and of L. H. Bailey in American 

 horticulture are and will be known as fundamental investigation extends and 

 deepens the total science's orbits. May adequate biographies of more recent 

 as well as older historical leaders in all phases of plant-science investigation 

 not fail for want of adequate collections of materials and data concerning 

 their lives and work and the lives and work of coworkers of their periods who 

 helped make their generations' work great! 



At the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition held in 1926 at Philadelphia com- 

 memorating ISO years since signing of the American Declaration of Inde- 

 pendence, John Merle Coulter characterized "the progress of science [as] 

 one of the most outstanding features of the sesquicentennial period." Thirty 

 more years of active work has since been added; and botanical science's ad- 

 vancement has been extended in pure and applied fields beyond even the 

 prophecies of those times. History's claims to full recognition in that and 

 other branches of science are patent. The subject matter and needs are abun- 

 dant. Some of us, unable for diverse reasons to become "professionally trained 

 historians of science," have contributed our studies more as what I. B. Cohen 

 {Science 114:3 Dec. 21, 1951) has properly called "devoted amateurs." Large 

 and important segments of professional botany, horticulture, forestry, and 

 other branches of investigation in the plant sciences in their broadest sense 

 were begun similarly on the American scene: by nonprofessionals or amateurs 

 who devotedly and generously gave of their individual substance and por- 

 tions of their work lives to the founding or promotion of a beloved science. 

 Records prepared by them have provided bases for subsequent study and 

 investigation; and, with the help or collaboration of professionally trained 

 men, portions of their pioneering work have survived the test of time ad- 

 mirably. In a sense they each and all were cornerstone layers. 



Now in study of the history of science, however, with more and more 

 colleges and technical schools introducing the subject into their curricula in 

 full or specialized forms, the subject is gaining in recognition and doctorates 

 are being offered in at least four universities in the United States. The time 

 will arrive, to quote Professor Cohen further, when studies will fully "pro- 

 vide a mature understanding of the nature of science, as well as its growth, 

 its place in our society, and its role in the development of our culture." The 

 need still exists for full-scale "summaries and syntheses," predicated in sci- 

 ence and in history, and in major instances more than biographies in presenta- 

 tion. A summons to young scholars is more than ever abroad in the land 

 today to build anew where as yet none or a dearth of historical works has 

 thus far been presented, or more completely on bases of "accuracy of fact 

 and reasonableness of interpretation" where thus far contributions to knowl- 

 edge have been submitted as offerings of fundamental structure. 



