SECTION E ECOLOGY 



(Hall 7, September 23, 3 p. TO.) 



SPEAKERS: PROFESSOR OSCAR DRUDE, Kon. Technische Hochschule. 



PROFESSOR BENJAMIN ROBINSON, Harvard University. 

 SECRETARY: PROFESSOR F. E. CLEMENTS, University of Nebraska. 



THE POSITION OF ECOLOGY IN MODERN SCIENCE 



BY OSCAR DRUDE 

 (Translated from the German by Miss Jane Patten, Boston, Mass.) 



[Oscar Crude, Professor of Botany, Konigl. sachs. Technische Hochschule, since 

 1879, and Director of the Botanical Gardens and Experiment Station of Dres- 

 den since 1890. b. Braunschweig, June 5, 1852. Graduate Student of Techuische 

 Hochschule, Braunschweig, 1870; Gpttingen, 1871-74; Ph.D. Gottingen, 1874. 

 Privy Councilor, Saxony; Assistant in Herbarium, Gottingen, 187479; Privat- 

 docent of Botany, Gottingen, 1876-79. Member of the Leopold-Caroline Ger- 

 man Academy of Natural Historians; German Botanical Association; French 

 Botanical Association; Zoological-Botanical Association of Vienna: and numer- 

 ous other scientific and learned societies. Author of Atlas der Pflanzenverbreit- 

 ung ; Handbuch der Pflanzengeographie ; and many other works and memoirs in 

 botany.] 



IF, at a Congress fifteen years ago, ecology had been spoken of as 

 a branch of natural science, the equal in importance of plant mor- 

 phology and physiology, no one would have understood the term. 

 That to-day in St. Louis it is given this rank is due to the zeal with 

 which new lines of scientific research, inspired by discoveries in the 

 most widely separated fields, have been followed during the last ten 

 years; and no country has been in advance of America in placing 

 in their true light the versatility, lofty aims, and scientific depth 

 of ecology. In this country the floras of Minnesota, Illinois, Penn- 

 sylvania, and Missouri, also those including the region from the 

 Appalachian Mountains and the Western territories to New Bruns- 

 wick and Nova Scotia, have attempted to show how their contents 

 are to be regarded by the light of ecology. 



This new tendency has not arisen from any chance discovery; 

 just as in the case of the study of bacteria, instruments had to be 

 perfected before it could be placed upon a firm foundation. 



In reality, this branch of science dates from the earliest period 

 of botanical investigation, for in addition to the formal descrip- 

 tions of those early times are found traces of a refreshing, vitalizing 



