12 BIOLOGY 



third, which finds its parallel and probably its suggestion in experi- 

 mental morphology. In its incipient stage it is known as ecological 

 anatomy, just as another phase of ecology preceded and then became 

 merged in experimental morphology. Ecological anatomy can 

 make no progress until it becomes an experimental subject, and 

 then it is experimental anatomy, which holds the same relation to 

 experimental morphology that evolutionary anatomy holds to evo- 

 lutionary morphology. In other words, it is the same subject, with 

 the same methods and purpose, and differing only in the struc- 

 tures investigated. And thus anatomy reaches the physiological 

 basis, and as a part of morphology fills out the structures to be 

 investigated from this standpoint. 



There remains a region of ecology so vast and vague that it must 

 be considered by itself for a time. It deals with such complex re- 

 lationships as exist between soil, topography, climate, etc., on the 

 one hand, and masses of vegetation, on the other. Just because it 

 is vast and vague ought it to be attacked. The little incursions that 

 have been made indicate the possibilities. It evidently includes 

 some of the great ultimate problems. As yet it cannot define itself, 

 for it seems to have no boundaries. Its materials were evident but 

 entirely meaningless in the earlier history of botany, for it needed 

 all of our progress before it could begin to ask intelligent questions. 

 By virtue of its late birth it promises to develop more rapidly than 

 any other phase of botany. And yet, beyond the inevitable prelim- 

 inary classification of material, its real progress is measured by its 

 experimental work conducted upon a definite physiological basis. 

 Tentative generalizations are numerous and necessary, but they are 

 merely suggestions for experiment. When one understands the close 

 analysis necessary in the simplest physiological experiment, the pro- 

 blems suggested by this phase of plant ecology are appalling; but I 

 see in the whole subject nothing but the largest application of physi- 

 ology to the plant kingdom. 



And now that the various phases of botany all seem to rest upon 

 physiology, it must be apparent that the most fundamental pro- 

 blems are physiological. It is only recently that the development of 

 plant physiology has justified this relationship. Its own history has 

 been one of progress from the superficial towards the fundamental, 

 from the behavior of a plant organ to the behavior of protoplasm. 

 And here it becomes identified with physics and chemistry; and in a 

 very real sense botany has become the application of physics and 

 chemistry to plants. 



