6io 



NATURE 



[January 30, 19 13 



to the essentials of the science as a subject of study. 

 It seems to one who carefully looks over the field 

 that there is often only the most vague notion of the 

 relative importance of the known facts in regard to 

 plants, those of trivial importance receiving as much 

 weight, perhaps, as those of profound significance. 

 Especially is this true of the more elementary courses, 

 in which there is also the greatest diversitv in the 

 presentation of the subject-matter. It should not be 

 long until this vagueness and doubtfulness as to 

 substance and manner in the presentation of botany 

 in the high school, and in the college, and the univer- 

 sity, will be a thing of the past. And I appeal to 

 botanists to take up seriously the task of so arranging 

 and coordinating our work that botany shall no longer 

 suffer the reproach of being the most chaotic of the 

 primary sciences. 



But the college and university departments are by 

 no means all that are engaged in botanical work. 

 Within the past twenty-five years many stations have 

 arisen in which botanical investigations are made. 

 Under various local names they are, in fact, " inves- 

 tigation stations," and while their results have not 

 been uniformly trustworthy, it is a most hopeful sign 

 of progress that they exist at all. Foremost among 

 these are the fifty or more agricultural experiment 

 stations to which I have already briefly referred, with 

 assured support from the States and the national 

 Government for all time to come, in which botanical 

 investigation forms no inconsiderable part of the work 

 undertak_en. If I read aright the tendencies in these 

 stations, it will not be long until their scientific out- 

 put will be wholly trustworthy, as indeed it is now in 

 some cases. This condition will be fully realised when 

 these stations are wholly under the direction of men 

 of broad .scientific training. 



We must recognise the agricultural experiment 

 stations as permanent parts of the botanical equip- 

 ment of the country. They will be with us in the 

 future, and their results will continue to be added to 

 botanical knowledge. We must accept them as a 

 part of our scientific equipment, and help to make 

 them more efficient. It will not do for us to stand 

 aloof, and decry their results as not accurate, and as 

 agricultural instead of botanical. When we fullv 

 realise that we have in these experiment stations so 

 many institutions of endowed research, we shall not 

 hesitate to welcome them to the ranks of science. 



Already we have stations for the study of plants 

 under particular environments, as our seaside sta- 

 tions, our mountain stations, and a single desert 

 station. I take it that these are suggestive of w^at 

 are to come in the future. Instead of trying to make 

 seaside conditions away from the sea, we go to the 

 sea and there set up our laboratories. So when we 

 want to know how plants behave in the desert we go 

 to the desert. And this is no doubt to be the direction 

 of botanical investigation. We are going to study 

 plants under their natural environment, and to the 

 seaside laboratories we shall add (as indeed we have 

 already to a limited extent) lakeside laboratories, 

 riverside laboratories, swamp laboratories, forest 

 laboratories, field laboratories. Alreadv the tropical 

 laboratories, in Java, Ceylon, and Jamaica, have 

 justified themselves, and no doubt to these we shall 

 soon add .Arctic and tundra laboratories. All this 

 signifies that more and more w-e are going to see 

 what the plant is doing in its natural environment, 

 and then we can undertake intelligently to watch it 

 under a changed environment. So the future is to 

 witness a great increase in the number of these 

 laboratories, and how far it will go can only be con- 

 jectured. 



Yet when we think of these botanical stations the 

 NO. 2257, VOL. 90] 



laboratories, of which are taken afield, as it were, we 

 must not suppose for a moment that the old-time 

 laboratories on the university campus are to be aban- 

 doned. Far from it. .'\s the work in the field labora- 

 tories is enlarged there will be still greater need of 

 the far more exact work that can be done only in 

 laboratories where every factor can be perfectly con- 

 trolled. There will still be need — greater need I 

 might say — for perfectly constructed plant-houses in 

 which we may observe plants under controlled con- 

 ditions. 



Another kind of station, of which we have now 

 only the beginnings, is one which will carry the 

 results of plant-breeding into the domain of phylo- 

 geny. Of this we have now some faint suggestions, 

 which must grow into far-reaching results under the 

 direction of men who know more of the subject than 

 we do now. In such laboratories we shall be able 

 to see how evolution has contributed to the present 

 wonderful diversity of form and size and colour and 

 habit among related plants. Such laboratories will 

 enable us to answer the demand formerly so often 

 made, but less often heard now, for a demonstration 

 of cases of actual evolution. 



I am assured as I consider the trend of scientific 

 thought that there will be greater unity of action 

 among the botanists of the country. At present we 

 are still in the guerilla stage of botany, in which 

 every man acts independently and for himself. 

 Although we profess to be botanists acting for the 

 best interests of science, we have actually no uniform 

 standard by which we may measure our actions. In 

 one particular we have tried to set up a standard, in 

 certain international rules pertaining to nomenclature ; 

 and yet, after several congresses of botanists, we have 

 the humiliating spectacle of a set of laws that nearly 

 everybody disobeys ! 



As I look into the future a vision rises before me 

 of the scientific army, working harmoniously like 

 well-drilled soldiers, and not wasting their strength 

 by turning their guns on one another. In this army 

 of science I see a company of thoroughlv disciplined 

 botanists, who, in orderly fashion, plan their cam- 

 paign. And, from the many doing severe garrison 

 duty in the small colleges to the heavy artillerymen 

 in the big university fortifications, and the few 

 isolated scouts along the frontier of special investiga- 

 tion, all are actuated by a common spirit of scientific 

 patriotism and loyalty. 



This, my botanical brothers, is what the future is 

 bringing us — a united, harmonious body of trained 

 men, whose endeavour is to carry forward the banner 

 of science, not for personal advantage, but for the 

 glory of the science to which we have dedicated our lives. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Birmingham. — Prof. Charles Lapworth has ex- 

 pressed the desire to vacate the chair of geology in 

 the University at the end of the current session. The 

 council of the University has resolved to engross and 

 present to him the following resolution : — "That in 

 accepting the resignation of Prof. Lapworth, first 

 professor of geology, the council remember that he 

 was appointed to the chair so long ago as 1881, that 

 he has had full charge of the department ever since, 

 and built it up into the most pronjinent and success- 

 ful chair of geology in anv British university. The 

 Geological Surveys of the Empire also owe some of 

 their methods to Prof. Lapworth's genius, and his 

 name is of more than European reputation. They 

 thank him for his long and assiduous services, con- 

 tinued to a period late in life, and hope that he will 



