i] PRESENT-DAY BOTANY 9 



student to keep himself adequately informed on the 

 general progress of the science as a whole. And 

 were it not for the compulsion which binds the 

 professional botanist in most cases to his duty as a 

 teacher, the risk would be greater than it actually is. 

 Fortunately almost all have to take their turn both 

 in elementary and advanced teaching of branches of 

 the science quite apart from that which is the chosen 

 speciality. This compulsion tends to right the balance, 

 and leads to a periodical revision of the science, as 

 it grows, by each teacher. Thus his interest is 

 compulsorily kept alive over the general field of the 

 subject. 



In presence of this pronounced tendency to 

 specialism, the amateur is apt to miss the main 

 ends which the expert has ultimately in view. It 

 would seem accordingly to be worth while to embody 

 in a series of short essays some reflection of the 

 outlook of an average botanist, himself a specialist, 

 it may be, upon the ordinary objects that surround 

 him. To show how he regards such vegetation as he 

 would encounter on a holiday, and to touch lightly 

 and with the least possible technicality upon some 

 of the problems which arise in relation to them. 

 Such lines of thought converge more or less directly 

 towards one central problem, still so far from ulti- 

 mate solution, viz., how the plant-organisms we see 

 around us came to be such as they are, and where 



