1895.] Development of Vegetable Physiology. 387 
thought, based as they were upon the connecting thread of 
evolution. So different now was the point of view that there 
sprang up what was called the ‘‘new botany.” Although the 
inspiration of the ‘‘new botany” was general, yet it manifested 
itself pedagogically chiefly in elementary instruction and in 
special studies. _ We may pass the delightful brochure of 
sa Gray on ‘‘How Plants Behave” (1872) with a bare men- 
tion, as it appeared too early to show any peculiarities of 
method not familiar to the readers of Darwin, and call to 
mind the much less pretentious presentation of the new way 
as understood by Beal under the title of ‘‘The New Botany” 
(1881). He declares it to be astudy of ‘‘objects before 
books,” in which ‘‘the pupil is directed and set to thinking, 
investigating, and experimenting for himself.” The new 
method did not fit equally well into all departments of botany, 
and found its best expression for the most part in develop- 
mental and physiological subjects. It was in fact the chief 
agent in preparing the ground for the crop of physiology 
that is now being sown, and sown in a field selected and 
staked out by Darwin and Sachs. 
Having shown how the field for the reception of the latest 
botanical husbandry was prepared, I may now briefly trace 
the source of the ideas with which it was implanted, and in 
doing so it is necessary to point out that vegetable physiology, 
as the term is generally employed, is not a homogeneous 
science, ~ 
The advancement of any subject is promoted by a clear 
understanding of its outlines, and it is in the interest of clear 
concepts and convenient usage that certain natural limita- 
tions should be respected by physiologists. Not that in- 
tergradation and mutual dependence do not occur, but that 
certain natural boundaries may be more or less distinctly rec- 
ognized which will throw the subject matter into sections and 
simplify the presentation of the numerous facts of the science. 
he most obvious distinction to be made in the physio- 
logical aspect of organisms is in regard to their maturity. 
The organism in its embryonic or juvenile condition manifests 
functional peculiarities of the highest import, quite unlike 
those of the adult. The physiology of reproduction belongs 
here, and includes not only a study of the formation and in- 
Crease of the young plant, that is, embryology, but genesiol- 
ogy as well, that is, the philosophy of the transmission of 
ae 
