As a Botanist. 243 



Charles Darwin to the science of plants, I have pur- 

 posely chosen the title, " Darwin as a Botanist," in 

 order to emphasise the contrast which may be 

 drawn between different classes of botanists, and to 

 do what I can to accustom the public mind to asso- 

 ciate with the terms botanist and botany certain great 

 fields of investigation which are now rarely sug- 

 gested by these words. . 



If I had entitled my paper : Darwin's researches 

 into the phenomena of the vegetable kingdom, I 

 fear it might not have occurred to some of you that 

 this great investigator was a botanist, as he is not 

 generally known as such. Yet I fail to see why the 

 science of botany is not fully entitled to receive its 

 share of the dignity and the lustre which Darwin's 

 investigations have reflected upon biology in general. 



The popular idea of botany, however, is very dif- 

 ferent from this. Not ignorant people alone, but 

 scientific men as well, place all botanists under 

 two general classes : " field botanists " and " closet 

 botanists." 



The field botanist is one who, being passionately 

 fond of plants, and having mastered the rudiments 

 of botany and become familiar with the names and 

 classification of plants, searches the country for new 

 and rare species, and for new localities for old ones, 

 and makes large collections. Success in these ob- 

 jects is his triumph, and occasionally becoming the 

 proud discoverer of hitherto unknown forms of 

 vegetable life, he finds the scientific world quick 

 and generous in awarding him due credit. 



The closet botanist is one who, disdaining the 



