440 A CENTURY OF SCIENCE 



The Early Years of Botany in the Journal. 



At that time, the botanists had no journal in this 

 country devoted to their science. Here and there they 

 found opportunity for publishing their discoveries in 

 some medical periodical or in a local newspaper. Hence 

 American botanists availed themselves of the welcome 

 extended by Silliman to botanical contributors to place 

 their results on record in a magazine devoted to science 

 in its wide sense. Specialization and subdivision of 

 science had not then begun to dissociate allied subjects, 

 and, consequently, botanists felt that they would be at 

 home in this journal conducted by a chemist. Botanists 

 responded promptly to this invitation with interesting 

 contributions. 



It is well to remember that the appliances at the com- 

 mand of naturalists at the date when the Journal began 

 its service, were imperfect and inadequate. The botanist 

 did not possess a convenient achromatic microscope, and 

 he was not in possession of the chemical aids now deemed 

 necessary in even the simplest research. Hence, atten- 

 tion was given almost wholly to such matters as the 

 forms of plants and the more obvious phenomena of 

 plant-life. In view of the poverty of instrumental aids 

 in research, the results attained must be regarded as sur- 

 prising. 



In the very first volume of the Journal, bearing the date 

 of 1818, there are descriptions of four new genera and of 

 four new species of plants; certainly a large share to 

 give to systematic botany. Besides these articles, there 

 are some instructive notes concerning a few plants, which 

 up to that time had been imperfectly understood. There 

 are four Floral Calendars which give details in regard 

 to the blossoming and the fruiting of plants in limited 

 districts, a botanical subject of some importance but 

 likely to become tedious in the long run. Just here, the 

 skill of the editor in limiting undesirable contributions is 

 shown by his tactful remark designed to soothe the feel- 

 ings of a prolix writer whose too long list of plants in a 

 floral calendar he had editorially cut down to reasonable 

 limits. The editor remarks, "such extended observa- 

 tions are desirable, but it may not always be convenient 



