304 THE JOURNAL OP BOTANY 



horticulture in the observation and study of plant diseases : " The 

 anatomical and chemical study of timbers might with advantage 

 occupy a greater number of workers." He insisted specially on the 

 need for a more systematic exploration of our colonies, which has 

 hitherto been left largely to amateur collectors, contrasting this 

 with the work of the Germans in East Africa and the Belgians on 

 the Congo, as illustrated by the important memoirs which have 

 been issued by the German and Belgian Governments. 



"It is time," Dr. Rendle continues, " that pioneer work gave 

 place to systematic botanical exploration of our tropical posses- 

 sions and the preparation of handy working floras and economic 

 handbooks. Work of botanical exploration should be full of 

 interest to the young botanist. But if he is to make the best use 

 of time and opportunity he must have had a proper course of 

 training. After completing his general botanical course, which 

 should naturally include an introduction to the principles of 

 classification, he should work for a time in a large Herbarium 

 and thus acquire a knowledge of the details of systematic work 

 and also of the general outlines of the flora of the area which "he 

 is to visit later. He should then be given a definite piece of 

 work in the botanical survey of the area. From the collated 

 results of such work convenient handbooks on the botanical 

 resources of regions open to British enterprise could be compiled. 

 There will be plenty of w^ork for the systematist who cannot 

 leave home. The ultimate elaboration of the floristic work must 

 be done in the Herbarium with its associated library. There is 

 also need of a careful monographic study of genera of economic 

 value, which would be best done by the experienced systematist 

 at home, given a plentiful supply of carefully collected and 

 annotated material, . . . Closely allied species or varieties of 

 one and the same species may differ greatly in economic value, 

 and the work of the monographer is to discover and diagnose 

 these different forms and elucidate them for the benefit of the 

 worker in the field." 



Dr. Rendle then proceeds to insist very strongly that " botanical 

 research stations in different parts of the Empire, adequately 

 equipped and under the charge of a capable trained botanist, are 

 a prime necessity. We seem to have been singularly unfortunate, 

 not to say stupid, in the management of some of our tropical 

 stations and botanical establishments. ... A botanical station 

 for research to be effective must be under the supervision of a 

 well-trained botanist with administrative capacity, who must have 

 at his disposal a well-equipped laboratory and ground for experi- 

 mental work. He must not be expected to make his station pay 

 its way by selling produce or distributing seedlings and the hke ; 

 a botanical station is not a market-garden. The Director will be 

 ready to give help and advice on questions of a botanical nature 

 arising locally, and he will be on the look-out for local problems 

 which may afford items of botanical research to visiting students. 

 Means must be adopted to attract the research student, aided, if 

 necessary, by research scholarships from home, The station 



