'64 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION C. 



mechanical way, and it tends to stifle rather than develop any 

 originality. Instead of being influenced by his real botanical 

 environment the botanist is influenced rather by the environment 

 of his own botanical school. 



On the other hand, the type of enthusiast is common, who is 

 far too ready to turn aside into all sorts of side tracks. He is 

 never likely to reach any destination, because he never proceeds 

 far enough in a straight line in any direction. It is very necessary 

 that he should be disciplined by being forced to follow in the foot- 

 steps of others along the main highroads of the science. Whatever 

 line one follows the main thing is to try to see the way clear as 

 far ahead as possible and to keep straight on. 



The Development of Botany in South Africa. 



The history of Botany is a valuable and interesting study, 

 which assists us greatly in obtaining a proper outlook. Our know- 

 ledge of this aspect of our subject is naturally chiefly confined to 

 the older-esta'blished countries, but it is interesting to observe how 

 a science like Botany grows, when it is transplanted into a new 

 country like South Africa. To begin with, the only indigenous 

 Botany was that of the native races. They possess a rather won- 

 derful knowledge of the plants which, rightly or more often 

 wrongly, they believe to be useful. The Zulus have a botanical 

 vocabulary of at least a thousand words. They are not artists and 

 do not draw plants, they know next to nothing of plant morpho- 

 logy and physiology, but they do observe carefully in some direc- 

 tions. They are able to distinguish closely allied species or 

 varieties, which are usually confused by the white settlers, and 

 they know a great deal about plant habitats. A study of the 

 botanical knowledge of primitive peoples, if undertaken by a 

 competent botanist, would have a considerable interest from the 

 standpoint of ethnology, sociology and kindred sciences, as well as 

 from our own. One is constantly reminded of the herbalists when 

 one considers the plant lore of the Zulus. Their facts are so 

 thoroughly mixed up with their superstitious beliefs. 



The earliest European botanists who visited South Africa were 

 explorers and collectors, men of the type of Thunberg, Burchell, 

 Ecklon, Zeyher, Drege, etc. They were limited by the stage of 

 progress of the science at their time, but no one who has read their 

 works can fail to be impressed by their energy, resourcefulness, and 

 immense power of assimilating and classifying new facts and details. 

 This applies also to later workers, who spent a greater or less 

 portion of their lives here, such as Harvey, MacOwan, Bolus, and 

 Medley Wood. In our enthusiasm for "main currents" of investi- 

 gation and "leading principles" there would seem to be some 

 danger of our losing that power of dealing with masses of details 

 and facts, though one would imagine that the discovery of more 

 and more scientific laws would assist us in doing so. At any rate, 

 in South Africa even to-dav it is precisely this type of abilitv 

 which is very much required. The conditions are so wonderfully 

 diversified and different from those of other countries and the flora. 



