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_ NOVEMBER 16, 1916] 
methods should be acquired, preferably at some patho- 
logical institution which would also be in touch with 
the cultivator and naturally approached by those re- 
quiring advice and help in connection with disease, 
‘on the same principle that a medical school is attached 
to a hospital. An important part of the training 
should be the study of the disease in the field and the 
cOnditions under which it arises and flourishes. From 
the point of view of mycology much useful scientific 
work remains to be done on the life-history of the 
fungi which are, or may be, the causes of disease. 
Other plant diseases afford problems for the physio- 
logist, who is a necessary part of the equipment of 
the Pathological Institute. 
The anatomical and chemical study of timbers might 
with advantage occupy a greater number of workers. 
The matter is of great economic importance. Ques- 
tions of identity are continually arising, and in the 
present vague state of our knowledge it is often diffi- 
cult or impossible to give a_ satisfactory answer. 
Samples of timber are put on the market shipped, say, 
from West Africa under some general name such as 
mahogany; the importer does not supply leaves and 
flowers for purposes of identification, and in the pre- 
sent incomplete state of our knowledge it is often 
impossible to make more than a vague attempt at 
determination. Or a merchant brings a sample which 
has been sent from X as Y, which it obviously is not; 
but what is it, whence does it probably come, and 
what supply of it is likely to be forthcoming? These 
are questions which it would be useful to be able to 
answer with some greater approach to accuracy than 
at present. And it should be the work of definitely 
trained persons. 
The yarious illustrative suggestions which I have 
made would imply a close co-operation between the 
schools of botany and colleges and institutions of agri- 
culture, horticulture, and forestry; to pass from the 
former to one or other of the latter for special work or 
training should be a natural thing. While on one hand 
a university course is not an essential preliminary to 
the study of one or other of the applied branches, the 
advantages of a broad, general training in the prin- 
ciples of the science cannot be gainsaid. The estab- 
lishment of professorships, readerships, or lectureships 
in economic botany at the university would supply a 
useful link between the pure and applied science, while 
research fellowships or scholarships would be an in- 
centive to investigation. 
There is the wider question of a rapprochement be- 
tween the man of science and the commercial man. 
Its desirability is obvious, and the advantages would 
be mutual; on one hand it would secure the spread 
and application of the results of research, and on the 
other the man of science would be directed to economic 
problems of which otherwise he might not become 
cognisant. The closer association between the 
academic institution and those devoted to the appli- 
cation of the science would be a step in this direction. 
Our British possessions, especially within the 
tropics, contain a wealth of material of economic 
value which has been only partially explored. One 
of the first needs is a tabulation of the material. 
In the important series of Colonial floras incepted by 
Sir Joseph Hooker, and published under the auspices 
of Kew, lies the foundation for further work. Con- 
sider, for instance, the ‘Flora of Tropical Africa,’ 
now rapidly nearing completion. This is a careful 
and, so far as possible with the material at hand, 
critical descriptive catalogue of the plants from 
tropical Africa which are preserved in the great 
British and European herbaria. The work has been 
done by men with considerable training in systematic 
work, but who know nothing at first hand of the 
country the vegetation of which they are cataloguing. 
NO. 2455, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
219 
Such a “Flora’’ must be regarded as a basis for 
further work, Its study will indicate botanical areas 
and their characteristics, and suggest what areas are 
likely to prove of greater or less economic value, and 
on what special lines. It will also indicate the lines 
on which areas may be mapped out for more detailed 
botanical exploration. That this is mecessary is 
obvious to any botanist who has used such a work. 
A large proportion of the species, some of which may, 
on further investigation, prove to be of economic 
value, are known only from a single incomplete frag- 
ment. Others, for instance, which may be of known 
economic value, doubtless exist over much larger areas 
and in much greater quantity than would appear from 
the “Flora.” The reason of these shortcomings is 
equally obvious. The collections on which the work 
is based are largely the result of voluntary effort em- 
ployed more or less spasmodically. The explorer 
working out some new route, who brings what he 
can conveniently carry to illustrate the plant products 
of the new country; the Government official or his 
wife, working during their brief leisure or collecting 
on the track between their different stations; the mis- 
sionary or soldier, with a penchant for natural history; 
to these and similar persons we are largely indebted 
for additions to our knowledge of the plant-life. Ad- 
vantage has sometimes been taken of a Government 
expedition to which a medical man with a knowledge 
of, or taste for, natural history, or, in rare cases, a 
trained botanist, has been attached. 
It is time that pioneer work gave place to systematic 
botanical exploration of our tropical possessions and 
the preparation of handy working floras and economic 
handbooks. Work of botanical exploration should be 
full of interest to the young botanist. But if he is to 
make the best use of time and opportunity he must 
have had a proper course of training. After complet- 
ing his general botanical course, which should natur- 
ally include an introduction to the principles of classi- 
fication, he should work for a time in a large herba- 
rium and thus acquire a knowledge of the details of 
systematic work and also of the general outlines of 
the flora of the area which he is to visit later. He 
should then be given a definite piece of work in the 
botanical survey of the area. From the collated re- 
sults of such work convenient handbooks on the 
botanical resources of regions open to British enter- 
prise could be compiled. There will be plenty of work 
for the systematist who cannot leave home. The ulti- 
mate elaboration of the floristic work must be done in 
the herbarium with its associated library. There is 
also need of a careful monographic study of genera of 
economic value which would be best done by the 
experienced systematist at home, given a_ plentiful 
supply of carefully collected and annotated material. 
Closely allied species or varieties of one and the same 
species may differ greatly in economic value, and the 
work of the monographer is to discover and diagnose 
these different forms and elucidate them for the benefit 
of the worker in the field. 
If we are to make the best use of our resources 
botanical research stations in different parts of the 
Empire, adequately equipped and under the charge of 
a capable trained botanist, are a prime necessity. 
We seem to have been singularly unfortunate in the 
management of some of our tropical stations and 
botanical establishments. 
A botanical station for research to be effective must 
be under the supervision of .a well-trained botanist 
with administrative capacity, who must have at his 
disposal a well-equipped laboratory and ground for 
experimental work. The director will be ready to give 
help and advice on questions of a botanical nature 
arising locally, and he will be on the look-out for local 
problems which may afford items of botanical research 
