OPEN LETTERS. 
The term phytobiology. 
The ever increasing attention given to the different phases of adapt- 
ation is making evident the need for an agreement upon some com- 
[We may call Prof. Ganong’s attention to the action of the Madison 
Botanical Congress (Proceedings p. 36) upon this point in recommen@, 
ing the use of the term ecology to designate the subject matter covered 
y the German Pflanzenbiologie. It is quite true that ecology has as 
yet been little used, but it is rather because the subject matter has 
been little studied in this country than because the word is aw ward 
oO cology is already in the dictionaries, though (in the Centuly 
at least) unde mmittee of the Congress which consid- 
ered this subject thought it better to take a word already coined than 
to construct a new one, e modification in spelling suggested 1s 12 
harmony with spelling reform and with the common word economy, of 
similar roots. 
The word phytobiology seems to us open to very serious objectio® 
because of its etymology. It ought by construction to be the equiva 
lent of the word botany, i.e., that division of biology which 1s em — 
gaged with plants. Witness, similarly, phytopathology, phytochem! — 
stry, phytogeography. Phytobiology, moreover, is already in the — 
language under the meaning just stated, for it is defined in the Cet” — 
tury dictionary and a citation of its use in this sense given.—EDs.] 
[38] 
