500 HYLANDER 



and readers in preparing for the changing American way of life? At the risk 

 of seeming critical of colleagues and fellow enthusiasts in botanical fields, 

 I shall have the temerity to put a few of my long-standing beliefs in print. 



It is nothing new to suggest that botany be made the study of living plants 

 in their natural environment; however, this obvious statement has to be 

 repeated over and over again, to offset the tendency of the laboratory-trained 

 graduate student to present botany only as a laboratory subject in which the 

 parts of a plant are thoroughly studied but the whole plant ignored. This 

 entails that the botanist who is a teacher or writer should spend much of his 

 time outdoors with plants and should take every opportunity to travel and 

 observe, in order to widen his range of experience with the flora which forms 

 the foundation for his subject. After some years spent in graduate school and 

 teaching, immured by a world of microscopes, herbarium sheets, and test 

 tubes, I took a half a year to roam the United States from coast to coast, to 

 familiarize myself with the plant life in the various parts of the country from 

 which my students came. The experience was at the same time exciting and 

 depressing: exciting in the wealth of information gathered on common mem- 

 bers of our vegetation ignored by texts and reference books; depressing be- 

 cause of a realization that my teaching had been conditioned by the provincial 

 content of a traditional curriculum. Upon my return, my missionary zeal 

 prompted me to write a popular survey of the floristic richness of our land, 

 as encountered by the average tourist. The World of Plant Life was a major 

 labor of love, but at least it is a satisfaction to both publisher and author 

 that such a ponderous volume is still in demand twenty years later. Thus 

 my first suggestion would be for botanists to leave their classrooms, their 

 summer research laboratories, and local collecting grounds for an adventurous 

 month or two far afield, perhaps to our major national parks. In so doing 

 they will not only enrich their own competency, but also mingle with the 

 average American and discover what his interests are, the questions he wants 

 answered. They will be surprised to find that a botanist is most welcome in 

 any group and is usually surrounded by an impromptu nature class as he 

 pauses to answer a casual question. 



As we face our students or visualize our potential readers, we can certainly 

 allow time for digressions from the traditional presentation of the subject in 

 view of the future interests of our suburbanite, traveler, and retired couple. 

 Lucky are these individuals if they have had even a general botany course, 

 planned for the student for whom this will be his only exposure to plant 

 science, with a view to the avocational and enjoyment possibilities which 

 stem from botany. Such a general introductory course can also create an 

 awareness of the salutary effects of a familiarity with plants, its potentialities 

 for relaxation from the tension ever increasing in our modern way of living. 

 As botanists we know the serenity which comes from close association with 

 plants; why be selfish and consider this a monopoly of our profession? Friends 



