734 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 



this little group of pioneers in their turn influenced their pupils, and so the 

 movement spread and grew. It would be premature to enter fully into this 

 phase of the movement, so I will pass on with the remark that modern botany- 

 was singularly fortunate in its early exponents. 



Whenever the history of botany in England comes to be written, one very 

 important event will have to be chronicled. This is the foundation of the Jodrell 

 Laboratory at Kew, which dates from the year 1876. Hidden away in a corner 

 of the gardens this unpretentious appendage of the Kew establishment has played 

 a leading part in the work of the last twenty-five years. Here you were free to 

 pursue your investigations with the whole resources of the gardens at your com- 

 mand. I suppose there is hardly a botanist in the country who has not, at some 

 time or other, availed himself of these facilities, and who does not cherish the 

 happiest memories of the tinoe he may have spent there. Certainly Jodrell dis- 

 played rare sagacity in his benefactions, which included, in addition to the labora- 

 tory that bears his name, the endowments of the Chairs of Animal Physiology 

 and Zoology at University College, London. 



Sir William Thisel ton-Dyer, who has so recently retired from the Directorship 

 of Kew, had every means of knowing that his happy inspiration of founding a 

 laboratory at Kew was a most fertile one. It would not be surprising if the 

 future were to show that of the many changes inaugurated during his period 

 of service this departure was by far the most fruitful. 



Another incident belonging to the early days ought not to be overlooked : 

 I refer to the notable concourse of Continental and American botanists at the 

 Manchester meeting of the British Association in 1887. The genuine interest 

 which they evinced in our budding efforts and the friendly encouragement 

 extended to us on that occasion certainly left an abiding impression and cheered 

 us on our way. 



We are not forgetful of our obligations. We regard them in the light of a 

 sort of funded debt on which it is at once a pleasure and a duty to pay interest. 

 The dividends, I believe, are steadily increasing — a happy result which I am 

 confident will be maintained. 



But I should be lacking in my duty did I permit the impression to remain 

 that botany is anything but a sturdy and natural growth among us. The 

 awakening, no doubt, came late, and at first we were influenced from without in 

 the subject-matter of our investigations. But many lines of work have gradually 

 opened out, whilst fruitful new departures and important advances have not been 

 wanting. We still lean a little heavily on the morphological side, and our most 

 urgent need lies in the direction of physiology. As chemists and physicists 

 realise more fully the possibilities of the ' botanical hinterland,' one may expect the 

 conventional frontier to become obliterated. As Mr. F. F. Blackmau has pointed 

 out in a recent interesting contribution,^ the chemist's point of view has undergone 

 a change with the growth of the science of physical chemistry, and is now much 

 more in line with that of the biologist than was formerly the case. This natural 

 passage from the problems of the one to those of the other should be the means of 

 attracting into our body recruits possessing the necessary equipment to attack 

 physiological problems. 



As the position gains strength on the physiological side, it will become 

 possible to render more effective service to agriculture and other branches of 

 economic botany. 



This is of importance for a variety of reasons. Among others it will bring 

 public support and recognition which will be all for the good, and it will 

 provide an outlet for our students. It will also afford unrivalled opportunities 

 for experiments on the large scale. Even should the economic conditions, which 

 compel us to import every vegetable product, continue to prevail in this country, 

 this wiU not be so in the Colonies. As time goes on, one may reasonably expect 

 an increasing demand for trained botanists, ready to turn their hands to a great 

 variety of economic problems. 



' Incipient Vitality,' Neiv Phytologiit, vol. v. p, 22 



