8 PLANT-LIFE ON LAND [ch. 



Scott-Elliott in his Botany of To-day has estimated 

 that about a quarter of a million pages of printed 

 matter relating to botany are produced annually. 

 Naturally it has become increasingly difficult for any 

 one mind to grasp the multitudinous details, or to 

 follow the descriptions of them as they appear. 

 Accordingly it has become necessary for each one to 

 specialise, if he is to be a practical worker at all : to 

 take up some limited area of the science, and make 

 it his own by reading and by personal observation. 

 In proportion as this is realised other parts of the 

 subject are apt to be neglected. This is the point 

 which has not been fully grasped. It still remains 

 to be learned that an expert on fossils of the coal 

 may not ever have grown a living plant ; an authority 

 on physiology may be sadly lost in the determination 

 of rare exotics ; a leading cytologist may be hope- 

 lessly puzzled by the identification of the Conifers ; 

 or a student of Algae may know little or nothing of 

 the source and supply of condiments and drugs. 

 And yet all of them pass under the comprehensive 

 name of "botanist." 



On these facts it may perhaps be hastily con- 

 cluded that the position of the science is highly 

 unsatisfactory : that each will take his own way, and 

 that coherence of intention among the workers is at an 

 end. It must be admitted that there is some danger 

 of this. It is difficult even for the most enthusiastic 



