wpe * 
EDITORIAL. 
THERE ARE many advantages in being in the current of the world’s 
activity. Botany is restrained in its development, and shorn of just 
recognition, because its representatives are still largely willing to pad: 
dle about in quiet bayous, content with the richness of botanical ma- 
terials and the opportunity of uninterruptedly studying them, without 
giving a thought to the great interests involved in the surging, push- 
ing mass of commerce and daily traffic which pass near by, accompa 
nied by the noise of enginery and the display of competition. A well 
known botanist, who has occupied a public position for many yeats 
explained to the writer some time ago that he preferred to go without 
much needed facilities in the way of books, room and assistance rather 
than make a request for them or do anything that would attract the 
attention of the politicians, who would probably abolish the office oF 
bring about some calamity if they remembered that he was in exist 
ance. This feeling is a survival from the old days when the botanist 
was a scholarly recluse, and neither he nor any one else dreamed that 
his knowledge could have a cash value. Botany was taught then, 
and is often taught now, as Arabic or quarternions are taught, not x 
cause it would help one to gain a livelihood, but for its disciplinary 
and educational value. 
A MIGHTY CHANGE has overtaken the spirit of the botanist in recent 
years. He has emerged from his herbarium den, and looks at the 
world with a clear eye instead of constantly peering through a magn 
fier at a bit of unrecognizable vegetation; he is occasionally see? e 
cultivated fields, instead of prowling through thickets and out of te 
way marshes; he speaks like a man who is watching for an opportun: 
ity to develop anew industry, and no longer acts as if he fully be- 
lieved ‘that industries and botanical science are unrelated 
incompatible. 
But the transformation is not complete, in fact it is only 0 far per 
There are still aa 
and so on *. 
pudiating the connection of these and other lines of inv’ 
