1894. ] Editorial, 161 
with the science of botany, especially where a practical or commercial 
end is in view, the botanist loses the advantage derived from popular 
approval. It is more difficult to obtain ten dollars to equip a lab- 
oratory for vegetable physiology than a thousand dollars for a labor- 
tory of chemistry, because Baron von Liebig and others long ago 
fully convinced the popular mind that a knowledge of chemistry was 
essential to an intelligent pursuance of most of the arts and industries. 
And so thoroughly was this done that every man, even to the present 
day, although he may not know the names of the elements, associates 
chemistry with the indispensable in education, while he has hazy, if 
any, notions about vegetable physiology or itsapplication. A Liebig 
isneeded in botany 
It Is A sounp principle in advertising that having an article of 
genuine worth and general utility the profit from it will be in propor- 
ton to the extent to which it is made known. Botany, both as a fun- 
damental and as an applied science, is in some respects like a com- 
mercial article. The better its merits are known the greater its in- 
Come will be in the way of money for teaching equipment, for labor- 
atories, for research, for salaries, for assistance, the more and varied 
the demand for botanists, in short the greater activity and the greater 
Possibilities, 
he progress already made toward creating a need for botanists in 
commercial world is considerable, and is every year increasing the 
. et Laboratory at Eustis, and recently have formed a 
mpany to send a botanist around the world to collect and 
ub-tropical fruits, to observe their diseases, and 
~) Way possible to make available whatever knowledge an able 
ith practically unlimited resources. A method 
and vineyards, likely to be introduced by ae 
y, is the employment of a pathologist to take 
oh the health of the plants, cre them at suitable intervals, and 
Which le against parasites. There are at present many ways 1n 
teaching. te knowledge can be made to yield a livelihood beside 
trained in } © greater and more diversified the demand for men 
Science ang ty becomes the better it will be for all branches of the 
» 8nd for al] its devotees. 
12—Vo}, XIX.—Npo. z 
