Botanical Studies in Fiji 



By Albert C. Smith 



Department of Botany, U. S. National Museum, Smithsonian Institution 



[With 12 plates] 



One of the functions of the botanical department of a large museum, 

 such as the U. S. National Museum, is to assemble from all parts of the 

 world a representative collection of herbarium specimens. The value 

 of such collections is often not appreciated by nonscientists, who may 

 question the expenditure of public or private funds for the building 

 of ever larger assemblages of dried botanical specimens, which in turn 

 demand additional storage space and increased time of the staff for 

 their maintenance. 



The herbarium specimen is the fundamental tool of the plant tax- 

 onomist. Without reference to such specimens, his floristic and mono- 

 graphic work loses much of its value, because his conclusions cannot 

 be checked by future workers. The importance of taxonomic work 

 needs no justification for those who see biology as a whole. But in 

 some circles, unfortunately, the museum and field work of taxonomists 

 is looked upon with either impatience or good-natured tolerance, 

 sometimes with an implication that such work belongs on the fringes 

 of scientific endeavor, if indeed it should be dignified as anything 

 more than an amiable hobby. That taxonomy is relevant to the prog- 

 ress of science, however, is apparent to anyone conversant with its 

 objectives and its basic techniques. In fact, taxonomy is in large part 

 a synthesizing branch of biology, and its practitioners derive their 

 data from the fields of morphology, genetics, ecology, physiology, and 

 cytology, not to mention the allied earth sciences of geology and 

 geography. With the background of specialized techniques provided 

 by these branches of science, the taxonomist, studying and analyzing 

 great numbers of herbarium specimens, supplies the data and statis- 

 tics that the phytogeographer and the student of phylogeny interpret. 

 All branches of biology have become increasingly interdependent ; by 

 the integration of knowledge derived from many disciplines, we are 

 gradually forging a real understanding of the world of living things. 



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