1895] Development of Vegetable Physiology. 401 
few have descended to personal reflection and invective, which 
were never before known to mar the amicable adjustment of 
differences of opinion among American botanists. But this 
storm is likely to pass and leave the atmosphere clearer, 
brighter, and more invigorating; and it is to be hoped that no 
trace will remain of an interruption of good fellowship and 
general camaraderie which has heretofore distinguished the 
botanists of this country. 
It is the broadened horizon for botany in general which 
makes the outlook for vegetable physiology so especially 
auspicious. This is the country of all others where its prac- 
tical and educational importance is likely to be most fully recog- 
nized, and where the best equipped and most independent labo- 
ratories can most readily be established. One difficulty yet 
besets it, the difficulty of making known what is needed. Bot- 
any has not before required much more thanatable neara win- 
dow for its microscope and reagents, a case for the herbarium, 
and a few shelves for books, and it is difficult to make it under- 
stood that the new department needs rooms with special fittings 
and expensive apparatus. If there were only one well equipped 
laboratory in the country, it might be cited as a model, but 
even that advantage is yet lacking. It can be explained that 
the chemical side of the subject needs much of the usual 
chemical apparatus and supplies with many special pieces, 
that the physical side requires similar provision, and that 
many pieces of apparatus are demanded which can not be 
obtained in the markets owing to the newness of the subject, 
necessitating provision for making apparatus of both metal 
and glass; but the explanation rarely conveys a full apprecia- 
tion of how essential and extensive this equipment is expected 
to be. In the fitting of the laboratory there should be rooms 
for the chemical work, with gas, water, sinks, and hoods, and 
rooms for the physical work, with shafting for transmitting 
power to clinostats and centrifugals, with devices for regulat- 
ing moisture and temperature, and with as ample provision 
for light asin a greenhouse. There should also be dark rooms 
into which a definite amount of light may be introduced by 
means of arc lamps, and other special rooms for special lines 
of study. It is easy to see that a well stocked greenhouse is 
required to supply healthy plants when needed for study, but 
the value of a botanic garden may not be so apparent. It 
need only be pointed out here, however, that Charles Darwin 
