TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 785 



Section K.— BOTANY. 

 President op the Section — Professor J. Reynolds Green, M.A., Sc.D., F.R.S. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. 

 The President delivered the following Address : — 



The visits of the British Association to a particular city recur with a certain 

 irregular frequency and bring with them a temptation to the President of a Section 

 to dwell in his opening Address on the progress made in the science associated 

 with that Section during the interval between such consecutive visits. This 

 course possesses a certain fascination of its own, for it enables us to realise how 

 far the patient investigations of years have ultimately led to definite advances in 

 knowledge and to appreciate the difficulties that have involved disappointments, 

 and that still have to be surmounted. We like to look back upon the struggles, 

 to record the triumphs, to deplore the failures, and to brace ourselves for new 

 efforts. The opportunity afforded hereby for criticism of methods, for reconsidera- 

 tion of what have been held to be fundamental principles, foi" the laying down of 

 new lines of work based upon longer experience, shows us how desirable such a 

 periodical retrospect may be. 



Standing as we do almost at the threshold of a new century, it seems particu- 

 larly advisable that we shall occupy our thoughts with some such considerations 

 to-day. I do not wish, however, so much to dwell upon the past and to lead 

 my hearers to rest in any way satisfied with the achievements of the last 

 century, phenomenal as they have been, as to direct attention to the future and 

 to place before you some of those problems which at the opening of the twentieth 

 century we find awaiting investigation, if not solution. 



I can only attempt to deal with a small portion of the botanical field. These 

 are the days of specialisation, and when anyone is said to be a botanist, the 

 question which arises at once is, Which particular section of botany is he 

 associated with ? The same principle of subdivision which cut up the old subject 

 of Natural History into Zoology, J3otany, and Geology has now gone further as 

 knowledge has increased, and three or perhaps four departments of botany must 

 be recognised, each demanding as much study as the whole subject seemed to 

 only fifty years ago. I shall therefore confine my remarks to-day to the field of 

 vegetable physiology. 



I should like at the outset to recommend this section of botanical work to 

 those of the younger school of botanists who are contemplating original research. 

 To my mind the possibilities of the living organism as such present a fascination 

 which is not afforded by the dry bones of morphology or histology ; valuable as 

 researches into the latter are, they seem to me to derive their importance very 

 largely from the past, from the possibility of indicating or ascertaining the line 

 of descent of living forms and the relation of the latter to their remote ancestors. 

 The interest thus excited seems to me to be rather of an academic character 



1902. 3 E 



