1896 | BOTANICAL OPPORTUNITY 217 
purely personal matter, I may say that such abstracts, coupled 
with a request for material or data, not infrequently bring to the 
advanced student the means of greatly increasing the complete- 
ness and value of his work. 
Time does not permit me to go into a detailed analysis of 
the many ways in which an investigator may use his time so as 
to make it productive of important results for himself and others. 
Having passed in somewhat comprehensive though hasty review 
the main factors in the question, I desire in closing to repeat 
that for most of us, opportunity of life does not lie in a great 
and abrupt change of condition, but that it is composed of count- 
less minor chances which are great only when viewed collectively. 
To see and use them calls for alert senses, a knowledge and use 
of the means of ascertaining what has already been done, and, 
by exclusion, something of what remains to be done, facilities 
adequate to the task in each case, and indomitable perseverance 
and ceaseless activity. Great as the value of facilities is, they 
are merely means to an end. They accomplish nothing them- 
selves. Hence though it is certain that the most voluminous 
and, perhaps, the most comprehensive results, and those result- 
ing from the performance of coherent experiments extending 
through a long series of years, will come from the great centers 
of research, there is no reason why qualitative results equal to 
the best may not continue to come, as they have in the past, 
from isolated workers, to the rounding out and completion of 
whose studies the facilities of the larger institutions will be more 
and more applicable as the problems of equipment are worked 
out, 
Missouri BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
