302 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [APRIL 
An attempt was made to explain the specimen on the ground that 
it was a hybrid, but there appear to be no two plants on Bering Island 
from which the characters found in Arcterica could be produced,— 
FREDERICK VERNON CoviLLe, Deft. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
NEW PRECISION-APPLIANCES FOR USE IN PLANT 
PHYSIOLOGY.’ 
(WITH THREE FIGURES) 
THE development of apparatus in this country for educational use 
in plant physiology has taken almost exclusively the direction of 
improvisation of the needful pieces from various existent physical, 
chemical, and mechanical articles, especially such as are very cheap 
and everywhere easy to obtain. In giving our inventions this turn it 
is evident that we have had in mind the needs of the smaller, poorer, 
and more backward institutions rather than the needs of the larger, 
richer, and more progressive; while, following the tendency usual in 
such cases, we have allowed ourselves to be carried to the extreme of 
reaction from the elaborate, costly, and mostly unpurchasable appliances 
previously used in this work. Improvisation has now, I believe, been 
carried to its utmost practical limit, and even to a greater extent than 
is educationally and scientifically desirable. Improvised apparatus 
certainly has its place and value, especially in that it permits the study 
of plant physiology in many places where otherwise it would be 
impossible, while its preparation cultivates a certain mechanical inge- 
nuity and self-reliance. In general it is certainly true that such 
apparatus is vastly better than no apparatus. But it has also very great 
disadvantages, notably the waste of time commonly involved in its 
preparation and manipulation, in the inevitable inaccuracy of results, 
and above all in the wrong habit and erroneous ideal of scientific 
method inculcated by the use of such imperfect tools. Further, expe- 
rience shows that the training in manipulation, while of value in itself, 
is gained at too great a cost of botanical training and knowledge; for 
usually the time and energy of the student are so fully absorbed in 
the preparation of the apparatus that he has little of either remaining 
for use in the study of the plants. 
These facts, I believe, indicate that the next step needful in plant 
hese appliances, with others to be described later, were exhibited and explained 
. 
at the Philadelphia meeting of the Society for Plant Morphology and Physiology, 
ecember 30, 1903. 
