? 
Orin CETTERS. 
CAN RESEARCH WORK BE ACCOMPLISHED IN AMERICAN 
LABORATORIES ? a 
To the kditors of the Botanical Gazette :—t has long been the custom of 
American botanists to make comparisons of the facilities for research afforded 
by our own laboratories and those of Europe, to the great disparagement of 
the former. In view of our rapid development in methods of elementary 
teaching, and the yearly establishment of a number of new chairs of bot 
any, it may be well to inquire at this time into the particulars upon which our 
alleged inferiority is based, that we may remove the chief faults if inherent 
our system of organization, or grow out of them as rapidly as possible. 
_ The essential factors for original work are a group of living ce 
pared plants, a laboratory, the literature of the subject to which attention 1S 
directed, and a moderate amount of cerebral matter in possession of por 
_ Perhaps the greatest difficulty which confronts the American 
the lack of reference literature. There are, however, several : 
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