74 Some Relationships of Economic Biology 



on the understanding that philosophical interest in the characters and 

 structure of the subjects of study be discreetly veiled. But the Natural 

 History of Plants was formally debarred from academic intercourse 

 and the philosophical study of nutritive plant-function has been installed 

 in its stead. The sincerity of this objection to co-ordination is best 

 revealed by the inconsistency of academic attitude towards the philo- 

 sophical study of plant-structure. For a time this study shared, on terms 

 of equality with plant-physiology, the position of which Natural History 

 has been deprived. Unfortunately the facts of plant-structure lead to 

 advances in philosophical classification and the study of plant-structure 

 has become so suspect that it is now the fashion to declare that the truths 

 of vegetable morphology are unprofitable for purposes of doctrine. But 

 while Academic Science has to some extent endorsed this view, the 

 "Comparative Anatomy of Plants" has been tacitly conceded certain 

 academic privileges. The plant-morphologist may still continue in the 

 palaeontological field the philosophical tasks of reconstructing vanished 

 vegetations and determining geological horizons. Academic Science has 

 also made an exception in favour of the morphological technology which 

 endeavours to explain the causes of those nutritive functions whose 

 efEects interest the plant-physiologist, and attempts to demonstrate the 

 mechanism of those reproductive functions whose effects extend to the 

 domain of moral study. 



Economic Biologists experience no difficulty in appreciating the de- 

 terminative interest of the Natural Historian. We benefit at every turn 

 from the results of historical study regarding the characters and virtues 

 of organic entities, and are glad of the assistance the naturalist can give 

 as regards the philosophical limitation of the essences with which we 

 deal. The ardour of the Natural Historian in systematic study has 

 placed Economic Biology under further obhgation: "Plant Pathology" 

 has been evolved from the natural histories of invertebrate creatures 

 and cryptogamic plants, therein differing from "Animal Pathology" 

 which is a bye-product of Animal Physiology. We have, as Economic 

 Biologists, a stronger bond of sympathy still with the Natural Historian. 

 We have discovered in the course of our own work that in the soil we 

 have a fauna and a flora as complex and as important as those that 

 appear upon it. We reahse that our first business is to codify this new 

 knowledge. In accomphshing this task Ave may find it expedient to 

 adopt methods of our own. But we appreciate already that we may 

 encounter difficulties with which Natural History is famihar, and that 

 we must attack our problem in her spirit. 



