74 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
of forestry education as may be necessary will, I venture to think, 
be forthcoming. 
There is still the other question to answer,—Whence are the 
teachers to come? This is, I think, fundamental. For, given a 
competent teacher, he will soon find opportunity for teaching. 
If to-morrow the whole or even a half of the chairs suggested by 
Dr Nisbet as essential were founded, how should we meet the 
demand for men to fill them? We might, of course, draw upon 
the Indian Forest Service, but I do not know where you would 
find teachers in Britain. But if there is no prospect of such 
immediate requirement of teachers, that does not make the fact 
of their deficiency of any less moment. There is surely something 
wrong when men capable of giving scientific instruction in so 
important a practical subject are so scarce. 
This is how it touches us botanists, and upon our shoulders 
I am disposed to throw the blame for the present outlook. We 
do not seem to have realised, except in relation to medicine, that 
modern botany has an outlet. Perhaps it has been the influence 
of medicine that has engendered this. We find chemists and 
physicists devoting their science to the furtherance of practical 
aims. Zoologists have applied theirs to the elucidation of problems 
bearing on the fishery industry, and we see in that monument to 
the ability and energy of Professor Ray Lankester, the marine 
biological laboratory at Plymouth, an experimental station which, 
while it contributes to the nation’s prosperity, serves at the same 
time as a home of pure research. But where is the practical 
outcome of modern botany? I must not overlook such brilliant 
work as that of Marshall Ward, full of purpose, and significant as 
it is to many large industries, nor that of Oliver in its bearings on 
horticulture. - But it does seem to me that the general trend of 
botanical work in Britain is not utilitarian. Perhaps as good an 
illustration as could be given of the slight practical importance 
attached by the lay mind nowadays to botany is the fact that the 
Scottish Universities Commissioners have made it—though I must 
add it is bracketed with zoology— optional with mathematics for 
the degree in agriculture ! 
It is matter of history that its utilitarian side gave the first 
impetus to the scientific study of botany. The plant-world, as the 
source of products of economic value and drugs, attracted attention, 
and out of this grew, by natural development, the systematic study 
of plants. The whole teaching of botany was at the first, and 
