1896 ] BOTANICAL OPPORTUNITY 195 
Instead ofa smattering of systematic botany and organography, 
given as an adjunct in chemistry, medicine, or engineering, the 
student who wishes may today equip himself fora life of research 
in botany, by a considerable amount of preparatory work in the 
lower schools, beginning, perhaps, even in the kindergarten, and 
by devoting the larger part of his undergraduate time in college 
to the elements of the subject in the broadest and, if he wish, 
technical scope, having the benefit of marvelously detailed appli- 
ances and a broad knowledge of general facts. If he can and will 
work for a higher university degree, thus equipped, he may delve 
into the depths of the most limited specialty, guided for a time 
by those who have already broken soil there, and left at last with 
a rich and unexplored vein for his own elaboration. With this 
training, if he be fortunate in securing a position offering oppor- 
tunity for research, or if he enjoy independent means, he may 
hope for a lifetime of more or less uninterrupted opportunity for 
unearthing the wealth of discovery that lies just within his 
reach, 
Considering the prevalent conditions, my subject naturally 
divides itself into two quite distinct parts: the opportunity of 
institutions and of individuals. We stand today, apparently, at 
a transition point. Most of the active workers of the present 
time are college professors who have done the research work 
that has made their names known, during the leisure that could 
be found in the year’s routine of instruction or during their long 
vacations, and with facilities nominally secured for class use, or, 
‘Nn many instances, like those of a generation ago, the private 
Property of the investigator. Even when appreciated at some- 
thing like its true value, their original work, for the most part, 
has been closely watched to prevent it from encroaching upon 
the first duty, class work; and in most cases the facilities that 
they have been able to bring together are in direct proportion to 
the number of students attracted to their departments, and there- 
spit oe ratio to their own leisure for research. But, as 
losin g ready stated, the feeling is growing among men able to 
ch enterprises, that research is a thing worthy of being 
