140 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



equipment of colleges now goes, which has not a better labor- 

 atory and a better equipped one than was DeBary's. With 

 the introduction of laboratory work came the training, in the 

 laboratories, of laboratory teachers to spread the leaven, not 

 only by repeating the process but by publishing in detail their 

 methods for the benefit of others who could not work under 

 them. It would be impossible to overstate our debt to Huxley 

 and Martin's Biology and the many guides of which it was 

 the precursor, to Strasburger's Practicum, the various treat- 

 ises on microscopic technique and microchemistry, and the in- 

 creasing number of physiological handbooks which have grown 

 out of Detmer's original. That the botanical world has 

 to-day not only the attainments of its predecessors, but as a 

 regular institution these facilities which did not formerly ex- 

 ist for the performance of work, may perhaps be regarded as 

 affording ground for the hope that the century upon which 

 we have now entered will as greatly surpass in achievement 

 the one just closed as the latter did all of its predecessors, 



BOTANY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Though epitomized in the preceding general survey of the 

 field, the progress in our country of what has been called the 

 amiable science interests us so directly that I may briefly 

 touch on it in conclusion. 



Systematic phanerogamic botany, early advanced through 

 the labors of Nuttall, Pursh, the Michaux, Elliott and others, 

 made rapid strides about the middle of the century, 

 when Torrey and Gray undertook the publication of their 

 Flora, — unfortunately never completed, partly because 

 of the wealth of new material brought to its authors as a 

 result of the extensive explorations of our western territory 

 undertaken by the Government. Without mentioning others 

 who have greatly contributed to its advancement in recent 

 years, I may say that Gray's Manual, Chapman's Flora of 

 the Southern States, Watson's contributions to western bot- 

 any, Coulter's Rocky Mountain Botany, and the masterly 

 revisions of critical groups by Gray, Watson andEngelmann, 

 have brought a knowledge of our plants within the reach 

 alike of investigator and amateur ; while few countries pos- 

 sess a local flora comparable with that of Britton and Brown, 



