THE PROBLEMS OF ECOLOGY 203 



knowledge for its own sake needs neither excuse nor apology, never- 

 theless, it is in its practical application that every science excites the 

 keenest interest. An investigation void of immediate or indirect 

 effect upon human welfare is relatively unattractive. An expert 

 mathematician recently told me that there were great fields in his 

 subject, hitherto unexplored, because they are too remote from any 

 known application to physics, astronomy, mechanics, or any other 

 branch of applied mathematics. The same is true, although perhaps 

 to a lesser extent, in certain phases of biological work. They seem 

 too far from probable usefulness to stimulate the investigator to 

 their enthusiastic pursuit. This can, however, in no wise be said of 

 ecology. Dealing as it does with the vital relations of plants to their 

 surroundings, it yields information of the highest importance to 

 the farmer, nurseryman, and landscape gardener. Indeed, it bridges 

 just that all too wide gap between theoretical and applied botany, 

 connecting the abstruse fields of plant anatomy, plant physiology, 

 and classification with the concrete applications of botany in agri- 

 culture, horticulture, and forestry. The ecologist will never lack 

 that wonderful stimulus which comes to the investigator who is 

 conscious that his work is important to the welfare of his fellow 

 beings, and intimately bound up with human progress. 



