1892. | Open Letters. 61 
have let loose upon us a crowd of quasi-botanists, such a class as is 
more apt to journey far to congresses than any other, our lines will not 
have fallen to us in pleasant places. e men we want to visit us are 
busy, very busy, and are little given to take such long trips for mani- 
festly cosmetic purposes. It would be a phenomenal thing to secure 
a body as our American Association, of confounding a foreign label 
with one of distinction. The percentage of smatterers and cranks is 
probably as large in other countries as in the United States, and it is 
well known that such classes travel further and talk more profusely 
than any other. We will have to show our good judgment, therefore, 
hot in indiscriminate but in proper recognition. 
Noruinc would so arouse the active interest of American botanists 
in this venture as an announcement by the local committee that has 
IF THE ConGREss becomes really representative, its discussions will 
Carry great weight; and any of its decisions with reference to modes 
of procedure will probably be recognized. If, however, it proves to 
€ a body whose representative character may well be called in ques- 
tion, no such decisions should be promulgated. More important than 
the nomenclature questions, which, like the poor, we have always wi 
Confusion of ideas. This will open a vast field of usefulness to the 
Congress, provided always that it is representative, which is to say 
petent. 
