Philosophy of Botany. 235 



the genius of Aristotle and Theophrastus assigned to botany 

 a special place in the domain of philosophy. 



Last, but not least, it behooves us to devote a few lines to 

 our own immediate interests. On our side of the Atlantic the 

 science of botany developed on the same line of evolution as 

 we observed it on the old continent. All energy was, as a 

 matter of necessity, even in colonial times, directed to the dif- 

 ferentiation and collection of species. Learned emigrants 

 and scientific explorers from France, England, and Germany 

 issued at home the first notices about American plants. Na- 

 tive-born citizens, otherwise employed in various vocations, 

 as clergymen or physicians, soon followed, devoting their 

 leisure time to collecting and describing the rich harvests 

 gathered in their unexplored fields. These men were all 

 either self-taught or had visited universities in Europe. Bo- 

 tanical training in public schools or colleges has been taken 

 up only recently, and even within the memor}^ of botanists 

 yet living the courses in this science were limited, and broader 

 inquiry considered not long ago as an object merely of recre- 

 ation and relaxation. I knoAv of reputable educational insti- 

 tutions of to-day which consider the instruction in natural 

 sciences as a matter of polite accomplishment only, or fear a 

 conflict with their religious sentiments. Fortunately for the 

 progress of science men who, in the great strides of commerce 

 and manufactures, have acquired great wealth, have seen 

 that all the advances in their great enterprises have grown out 

 of a succession of obscure discoveries, made by the devote'es 

 to pure science, which the discoverer himself estimated only 

 as one step in unraveling the great mysteries of nature. 

 Sooner or later the great business men adopted and applied 

 their discoveries for the benefit of all men in the shrewd art 

 of money-making. To these men, successful in business, we 

 owe it to-day that institutions have been endowed for the 

 propagation of knowledge, and, supplied with ample means, 

 that some men are able to devote their entire time under most 

 favorable conditions to scientific research. 



All the greater universities in this country are now equipped 

 with botanical or biological laboratories, in which much in- 

 dependent research is carried on and published in botanical 



