76 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 
the Cycadofilicales! Even the winged pollen-grains so 
characteristic of Gymnosperms have been found! Think 
of the effect of this discovery upon historical geology, and 
upon plant evolution, if you will! 
But it is in agricultural science where we find the 
greatest effect of the biological influence. Indeed, agri- 
culture may aptly be called “Applied Biology”. 
The entomologist has worked out the life-history of in- 
sects, and discovered how to control the injurious species, 
either by spraying with mineral poisons or by the intro- 
duction of other insects as parasites. The ornithologist 
has told us which birds are valuable, and which are harm- 
ful. The botanist has suggested the possibilities of new 
species of plants for cultivation. As an example of this, 
it might be interesting to note that commercial rubber is 
to-day obtained from over two hundred different species of 
plants. He has studied plant diseases, and has shown how 
to save millions of dollars annually from their depredations. 
Thirty years ago, plant pathology was practically unknown; 
but in this brief period, it has grown to be an independent 
science. Its importance from the practical side can well 
be judged when it is considered that the loss to the farmers 
of the United States from grain rusts alone is estimated at 
between $20,000,000 and $60,000,000 annually; from oat 
smut at $18,000,000 and from corn smut at $2,000,000. 
And Plant Pathology has already shown how some of these 
losses can be prevented, and it is but the matter of a short 
time until the rest of the problem will be solved. 
The physiological botanist has shown the laws govern- 
ing the growth of plants—their relation to water, light, 
drainage, soil-treatment, both mechanical and chemical, and 
so forth. But perhaps the most interesting phase of agri- 
cultural biology of the past decade or so is that associated 
with plant and animal breeding and researches into the laws 
of heredity. As is well known to this audience, Gregor 
Mendel in 1865 was the pioneer in plant breeding; but his 
work on this subject was published when the scientific 
world was in the vortex of the storm of Darwinism; and 
hence it received no serious attention until thirty-five years 
