382 Forestry Quarterly 



historical development of plant ecology and then of sivictilture, 

 and in so doing trace the progress of forest ecology in both fields. 

 In the space allotted to this paper it is obviously impossible to 

 go into many details and still cover the ground. I desire merely 

 to broaden the general conception of the subject by a historical 

 and in part descriptive treatment of the main body of ecological 

 thought (namely, plant ecology), and to show that plant ecology 

 has developed by progressive stages from the study of plant 

 distribution to that of plant associations and formations, and lastly 

 to the study of habitat factors and experimental ecology. I will, 

 then, treat of a similar development in silviculture and attempt to 

 show how it developed from an art based upon empiricism to a 

 science based upon the fundamental natural sciences. 



A historical study of this kind, it is hoped, will be of value 

 to the investigator as well as to the teacher. In pursuing it, we 

 leave for the moment the study of the mere facts, theory, and 

 technique of science and turn our attention to the broadening and 

 cultural effects of scientific study. Most of us have heard and 

 read too much of the orthodoxy of science and its tendency 

 towards over-specialization, both in practice and in teaching, and 

 not enough of the appreciation of science from the historical point 

 of view. Therefore, this paper may not be out of time or out of 

 place. The historical development of the principles and methods 

 of a science, the evolution of the science itself, showing its prog- 

 ress from unsystematized simplicity to organized complexity, 

 and the correlation and interrelation between its different phases 

 are subjects worthy of more attention in the future than has 

 been given them in the past. 



A historical study of a science like forest ecology, which is 

 of great economic importance, reveals many valuable lessons. 

 History broadens the perspective. The psychologist would say 

 that it strengthens our apperceptive basis for further study. By 

 its study we learn the great men and the valuable literature 

 which have made the science what it is, and we fix in our minds 

 the important dates which indicate milestones of progress. We 

 learn which phases of the subject are new and which had their 

 origin many years ago, and in that way learn to appreciate the 

 present stage of the development of a science. By a historical 

 study of forest ecology in a country like Germany, which is far 

 advanced in that particular branch, we are able to prophesy, to 



