Science progress. 



New Series. No. 3. April, 1897. Vol. I. 



ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION 



IN PLANTS.^ 



BEHIND every morphological phenomenon there 

 stands a physiological question. Problems which 

 can be tentatively dealt with in two ways, according to the 

 relative importance assigned to the morphology and the 

 physiology of the organism are still continually arising in 

 Botany, as they have arisen — in various guises — in the 

 past, and it would probably be not difficult to classify most 

 of the combatants in the great disputes of the science into 

 two groups, the one including those who are especially 

 prone to judge biological causes on physiological evidence, 

 the other those who regard morphological data as of primary 

 importance. 



The point of view has exerted considerable influence in 

 the study of plants, whether we turn our attention to text- 

 books or to the monographs of the investigator, and the 

 warnings prompted by the clear-sighted vision of a few 

 strong observers, of the clangers of allowing Botany — the 

 study of plants — to be torn into shreds of narrow specialisa- 

 tion, superficial generalisations, and mere vapourings of 

 trancendentalism, are justified by the departures of the 

 last twenty years. 



1 Die Bedingungen d. Fortpflanzung bei einigen Algen u. Pilzen. Von 

 Professor Dr. G. Klebs. Jena, Gustav Fischer, 1896. 



Beitrage zur Lehre von der Fortpflanzung der Gewachse, von Pro- 

 fessor Dr. M. Mobius. Jena, Gustav Fischer, 1897. 



17 



