l8 9i] Editorial. 



119 



EDITORIAL. 



The utilitarian side of botany is one that is not attractive to the 

 majority of botanists, unless it be in that intensely personal way em- 

 bodied in the retort of a Harvard professor when annoyed by the in- 



1 



considerate question of a visitor to whom he was showing an object 

 under the microscope. "And what is the use of it all", said the visitor. 

 " It brings me my bread and butter", was the quick reply. It is to 

 be feared that there are botanists who would feel that the science was 

 sufficiently recognized if a proper number of places with comfortable 

 salaries attached were provided for deserving aspirants, who might re- 

 tire from the distractions and contamination of the world and devote 

 their lives to pure science without being prodded into giving a thought 

 to any possible application of their results to the practical affairs of 

 life. Such positions are never likely to be numerous. In the mean- 

 time the world is clamoring for chemists and electricians and repre- 

 sentatives of other departments of science to stand as sureties that 

 capital shall not be misdirected. The increasing variety and com- 

 plexity of the requirements makes evident the necessity for a mon 

 complete knowledge of the principles involved, and thus a return road 

 is open to original investigation. This not only means a readier rec- 

 ognition of the value of the science, but increased tolerance for its 

 more abstruse phases that appear to have no present relation to com- 

 mercial life. 



Medicine was the first patron of botany, and in foreign countries is 

 still one. The early botanists were physicians, and studied plants to 

 discover their medical properties. The first botanic gardens were 

 founded with this purpose in view. Afterward came the study and 

 cultivation of plants brought together by travelers and explorers with 

 the expectation of an increase of the natural productions upon which 

 commerce thrives. This is especially marked in the maritime nations, 

 such as England and France. It is the principal motive for the main- 

 tenance of the Royal Gardens at Kew. In America, neither of these 

 interests have much affected the growth of the science. In fact, not 

 until recently has botany been much called upon to lend material aid 

 to the development of the western world. This time it is agriculture 

 that lends a hand, and it has come largely through the establishment 

 of the agricultural colleges, the agricultural experiment stations and 

 the section of vegetable pathology in the Department of Agriculture 

 at Washington. However, none of these gave the initiative to the 

 present train of thought. It came from a visit to a large pharmaceuti- 

 cal establishment at Indianapolis, ill which a prof< - <ma' botanist is 



