EDITORIAL. 423 



science of the future must develop not only from the demands of 

 the practitioner of the art, but from the productive energies of the 

 scientist." 



The presidential address of Prof. L. H. Bailey before the Society 

 for Horticultural Science dealt with the question. What is horticul- 

 ture? In answering- this he showed it to be primarily a biological 

 subject whose fundamental relationship is with botany, although lat- 

 terly it has been correlated with agriculture rather than with botany. 

 Horticulture was compared in its relations to botany with that of 

 electrical and other engineering to physics. It was suggested that the 

 present tendency to return to unit courses of biology might result in 

 the abandoning of the term "botanist" as designating the occupant of 

 a professorship, and that in its place would be specialized biologists in 

 various phases of the subject. Among these would be reckoned the 

 horticulturist, connecting plant biology with the affairs of men. 

 Going a step further, the speaker prophesied the differentiation of 

 horticulture, as has been the case with agriculture, with horticultur- 

 ists representing different branches of the industry, such as pomology, 

 ornamental gardening, fruit manufacture, and the like. 



The general subject of horticulture was divided into three phases — 

 the biological or science side, the affairs or commercial side, and the 

 art and home side. The speaker affirmed that the opportunities of 

 horticulturists on the science side are just beginning to be recognized 

 and that most of their work has been of a temporary and superficial 

 character. Real horticultural research is only begun, and the field is 

 concreting itself and attracting trained men to it. Out of this more 

 profound research of the future, it was suggested, might come a 

 clearer conception of plant breeding and its relations to the grower 

 and to the manipulation of the soil, a new plant physiology, preferably 

 a joint product of the botanists and the horticulturists, and important 

 contributions to the subject of evolution, derived inevitably from 

 study of the species which we now cultivate and the extension of effort 

 to species not yet domesticated. 



In addition to the horticulturist's biological work, the speaker 

 pointed out his mission in cultivating the art impulses, as expressed 

 in plants in the home and in the garden, in the parks, and along the 

 streets and highways. His energies are expended in every way in 

 which plants appeal to men. As a teaching profession the subject was 

 divided into two great phases — the teaching of those things relating to 

 the art and the craft, and aiding in bringing the child into relations 

 with its environment. "In all these generations," he said, "we have 

 been training the reflective and passive faculties; we shall now train 

 also the creative and active faculties. . . . The child will be trained 

 to use his hands, to plan, and to reason from actual problems. Then 

 he will be resourceful and will have power." 



