Scope of Dendrology in Forest Botany. 235 



of inquiry practically and to enable us to overlook a large field of 

 inquiry. 



But what about silvics? Before Dr. Gifford coined this unfor- 

 tunate word — unfortunate because of its linguistically bad form! 

 — the subject which it comprised was known to foresters — and 

 botanists had nothing to do with it — as' "silvicultural character- 

 istics of species." As this term explains itself, it is a segregation 

 of the ecological knowledge (biological dendrology) which is of 

 special interest to the silviculturist in the practical application of 

 his art — the behavior of the species under forest conditions in- 

 cluded. 



This very simple classification of the subject seems to us com- 

 plete, and is hardly needful of argument, except for those that 

 misuse terms and they are often incurable. 



The fact that a Committee for the Revision of Terminology 

 of the Society of American Foresters has just begun its work, 

 makes this discussion, however, timely. 



Remarks on the Above Article by C. D. Howe. 



The statement of the author that dendrology "deals with tree 

 species, with facts concerning the individual trees that go to 

 make up the forest," would include the study of the biological 

 relationships of single trees. Such a study should be included 

 under silzncs. Silvics is not alone a study of associations of trees 

 as the author states. 



The term dendrology without a limiting adjective carries with 

 it, I think, the idea of descriptive and taxonomic relationships. 

 Dendrology might be included in the term forest botany, but 

 silvics should not be so included. The study of biological re- 

 lationships is a science co-ordinate with a study of the descrip- 

 tive relationships, as in botany proper we have taxonomy (sys- 

 tematic botany) and plant ecology, or as in zoology we have 

 systematic zoology and ecological zoology. Therefore dendrolo- 

 gy and silvics (granting the use of the term) should be regarded 

 as co-ordinate branches, and only the former may be included 

 under forest botany. 



Silvics is not a "sister" to plant geography and plant ecology, 

 but is a daughter of the latter and only a cousin to the former 

 From its derivation, plant ecology means the household relations. 



