30 
Importance of Research in Pure Science 
An outstanding illustration of how investigations in pure 
science may lead to results of the highest practical importance 
is the work of Pasteur. Starting out to investigate what some 
would call the “academic” question of the spontaneous gener- 
ation of living things, he was led to the discovery of bacteria, 
and a whole new science, Bacteriology, was born, with its in- 
calculable practical bearings in human disease, agriculture, and a 
whole series of other industries. 
The two most fruitful ideas contributed to botanical science 
during the past twenty-five years are, perhaps, the principles of 
heredity, known collectively as Mendelism; and the contribution 
to our knowledge of organic evolution known as Mutation. 
The principles of Mendelism were formulated by Mendel on 
the basis of his studies of the garden Pea. He was not interested 
in peas as peas at all, but peas possessed certain characteristics 
that fitted them preeminently for studies in heredity; hence, 
Mendel studied peas, and the study of Heredity was, for the 
first time, placed upon a scientific, experimental basis. 
The mutation hypothesis was formulated by the Dutch 
botanist, de Vries, on the basis of a study of the common weed, 
Lamarck’s Evening-Primrose- De Vries was not primarily 
interested in the Evening-Primroses, but the most direct approach 
to the principle he was after seemed to be by a study of those 
plants; hence, they became the subject of his researches, and 
the experimental study of organic evolution received a great 
impetus, with important practical as well as theoretical results. 
So, in the investigations at the Botanic Garden in the experi- 
mental phases of botany (in addition to our non-experimental 
studies of the local flora and the problems of plant classification) 
the problems are Disease Resistance in Plants and the Principles 
of Heredity and Variation, which underlie plant (and animal) 
breeding. Experience has shown us that the principles of disease 
resistance and control, and of heredity and variation, discovered 
by studying any suitable material, have a wide application 
throughout the plant kingdom. 
The above paragraphs are written as a direct reply to a query 
which has been raised locally as to what are the essential needs 
of botanical research today and, in particular, what lines of 
research an urban botanic garden may most appropriately develop. 
