SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 619 
The disproportion between the plants which are known and those 
which are used becomes much greater when we take into account the 
species of flowerless plants also. Of the 500 ferns and their allies we 
employ, for other than decorative purposes, only 5; the mosses and 
liverworts, roughly estimated at 500 species, have only 4 which are 
directly used by man. There are comparatively few algz, fungi, or 
lichens which have extended use. 
Therefore, when we take the flowering and flowerless together, the 
percentage of utilized plants falls far below the estimate made for the 
flowering alone. 
Such a ratio between the number of species known and the number 
used justifies the inquiry which I have proposed for discussion at this 
time, namely, can the short list of useful plants be increased to advan- 
tage? Ifso, how? 
This is a practical question; it is likewise a very old one. In one 
form or another, by one people or another, it has been asked from early 
times. In the dawn of civilization mankind inherited from savage an- 
cestors certain plants, which had been found amenable to simple culti- 
vation, and the products of these plants supplemented the spoils of the 
chase and of the sea. The question which we ask now was asked then. 
Wild plants were examined for new uses; primitive agriculture and 
horticulture extended their bounds in answer to this inquiry. Age 
after age has added slowly and cautiously to the list of cultivable and 
utilizable plants, but the aggregate additions have been, as we have 
seen, comparatively slight. 
The question has thus no charm of novelty, but it is as practical 
to-day as in early ages. In fact, at the present time, in view of all the 
appliances at the command of modern science and under the strong 
light east by recent biological and technological research, the inquiry 
which we propose assumes great importance. One phase of it is being 
attentively and systematically regarded in the great experiment sta- 
tions, another phase is being studied in the laboratories of chemistry 
and pharmacy, while still another presents itself in the museums of 
economie botany. 
Our question may be put in other words, which are even more prac- 
tical. What present likelihood is there that our tables may, one of 
these days, have other vegetables, fruits, and cereals than those which 
we use now? What chance is there that new fibers may supplement 
or even replace those which we spin and weave, that woven fabrics 
may take on new vegetable colors, that flowers and leaves may yield 
new perfumes and flavors? What probability is there that new reme- 
dial agents may be found among plants neglected or now wholly un- 
known? The answer which I shall attempt is not in the nature of a 
prophecy; it can claim no rank higher than that of a reasonable con- 
jecture. 
At the outset it must be said that synthetic chemistry has made and 
is making some exceedingly short cuts across this field of research, 
