22 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



of morphologists as there are great groups of plants, and 

 so for other fields. This analysis was inevitable and desir- 

 able, for it developed technique, the essential equipment 

 for research. 



Now, however, the movement is in the other direction. 

 We are passing from the analysis of our subject to its 

 synthesis, and it is this synthesis that is being called for 

 by the new botanical opportunity. The synthetic view 

 recognizes, not the rigidity of separate fields, but the co- 

 operation of all fields. Every phase of botany must be 

 focused upon our important problems, for we recognize 

 that every important problem is synthetic. Our superficial 

 separate problems that we have been cultivating have in- 

 troduced us to the fact that nature is a great synthesis, 

 and must be attacked synthetically. In the days ahead, 

 the botanist who remains narrow will be stranded. 



2. The practical outlook. — The new opportunity de- 

 mands this; in fact, it was this that created the new 

 opportunity. This means that we are to see to it that 

 botany is recognized as the greatest field for universal 

 service. Medicine holds that position now in public esti- 

 mation, simply because it ministers to the unfortunate, but 

 they are in the minority. Botanical research underlies an 

 essential ministry to all. Disarticulation of botany from 

 its practical applications has been most unfortunate, and 

 must not be continued. For example, to segregate botany 

 and agriculture as two distinct fields is to damage both ; a 

 mistake that our recent experience has emphasized. The 

 result has been that botany has not contributed to agricul- 

 tural practice as it should; and agricultural practice has 

 not called upon botany as it should. 



This is very far from meaning that every investigation 

 should have an obvious practical application. Research 

 must be absolutely free, stimulated only by its own interest 

 in advancing knowledge, but the importance of funda- 

 mental knowledge in solving practical problems should be 

 emphasized at every opportunity. 



8. Cooperation in Research. — Our isolated, more or less 

 competitive investigations have resulted in a certain 

 amount of progress; but it has been very slow compared 

 with what cooperation would have secured. The important 



