46o NATURAL SCIENCE. august. 



academic position than the science of Botany. Perhaps this is true 

 to a considerable extent in other countries as well, but the bridge 

 between the science as taught and its practical application, is of such 

 a nature that we may almost say it is non-existent at home. In 

 Germany, France, and even Norway and Sweden, " practice with 

 science " — the motto of our Royal Agricultural Society — is more of a 

 reality than a name. No better evidence of the danger of continuous 

 specialisation — which is very often heedless of the claims of the 

 practical man — is seen than that which confronts us when we com- 

 pare English scientific botanical literature with the books on which 

 a gardener or farmer has to rely for his information. In the former, 

 pure science for its own sake — not to be heedlessly condemned — 

 exists in a state of supreme ignorance of its co-partner on the side 

 of practice. The illustrations of structure and application of physio- 

 logical principle in the modern text-book, savour of curiosity merely, 

 or are worn threadbare by being compelled to do duty on all possible 

 occasions. The botanist has gone on and on into minute and endless 

 paths, far ahead of ordinary life, and is lost to the cultivator of 

 field or garden. The gardener, on the other hand, is primarily con- 

 cerned with the practice of his art, and has, by force of circumstances, 

 specialised in his own peculiar manner, and become almost a mere 

 machine. He has found it difficult to account for success or failure, 

 and has been compelled to register methods minutely, and the result 

 is he is lost to the botanist in blind and often meaningless adherence 

 to custom. Scientific explanation or statement of principle in his 

 books is missing, or, if given, is often worse than if it had not been 

 present at all. The scientific man and the practical man in botany, 

 so far as England is concerned, have left each other almost com- 

 pletely ; whatever the one possesses belonging to the other is ancient 

 and valueless. An exchange of books, under such circumstances, 

 can easily be imagined. The gardener, in beginning to study botany, 

 finds himself in a foreign land, and the botanist is not much better 

 off when he attempts to improve his acquaintance with horticulture. 



Up to the present time, in this country few attempts have been 

 made to remedy this state of^things, but abroad the step between the 

 two is firmly laid, and new discoveries are adapted to everyday 

 requirements several years before we avail ourselves of them. 



It is essential for the proper development of scientific work in 

 its best form that it should be kept apart from practical considera- 

 tions to some extent, but isolation may take place between the 

 advanced specialist and what should be his colleague, and the gap 

 between them becomes so great that they refuse to recognise each 

 other. This is the condition of affairs between Horticulture and 

 Agriculture, and one of their chief corner-stones — the science of 

 Botany. 



It is time we made an attempt at a remedy. Up to a certain point 

 the requirements of the farmer and gardener, so far as this subject 



