rG8 TRANSACTIONS Otf SECTION It. 



Suction K.— BOTANY. 



President of the Section : 

 Professor James W. H. Trail, M.A., M.D., F.R.S. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. 



The President delivered the following Address : — 



The honour conferred in the election to be President for the year of the Botanical 

 Section of the British Association imposes the duty of preparing an address. I 

 trust that my selection of a subject will not be attributed by anyone to a want 

 of appreciation of the worth and importance of certain sides of botanical research 

 to which I shall have less occasion to refer. These have been eloquently sup- 

 ported by former Presidents, and I take this opportunity to express the thanks 

 1 owe for the benefit received from their contributions to the advancement of the 

 science of botany. They have told us of the advance rn departments of which 

 they could speak as leaders in research, and I do not venture to follow in their 

 steps. My subject is from a field in which I have often experienced the hind- 

 rances of which I shall have to speak, both in personal work and still more as a 

 teacher of students, familiar with the many difficulties that impede the path of 

 those who would gladly give of their best, but find the difficulties for a time 

 almost insurmountable, and who are too frequently unable to spare the time or 

 labour to allow of their undertaking scientific investigations that they might well 

 accomplish, and in which they would find keen pleasure under other conditions. 

 Those whose tastes lie in the direction of studying plants in the field rather than 

 in the laboratory are apt to find themselves hampered ceriouely if they seek to 

 become acquainted with the plants of their own vicinity ; and, if they wish to 

 undertake investigations in the hope of doing what they can to advance botanical 

 science, they may find it scarcely possible to ascertain what has been already done 

 and recorded by others. 



For a time the knowledge of plants was too much confined to the ability to 

 name them according to the system in vogue and to a knowledge of their uses, 

 real or imagined. The undue importance attached to this side of the study, even 

 by so great a leader as Linnaeus, naturally led to a reaction as the value of other 

 aspects of botany came to be realised, and as improvements in the instruments 

 and methods of research opened up new fields of stud}-. The science has gained 

 much by the reaction ; but there is danger of swinging to the other extreme and 

 of failing to recognise the need to become well acquainted with plants in their 

 natural surroundings. The opportunities for study in the laboratory are so great 

 and so much more under control, and the materials are so abundant and of so 

 much interest, that there is for many botanists a temptation to limit themselves 

 to such work, or at least to regard wor ikn the field as subordinate to it and of 

 little value. It is scarcely necessary to point out that each side is insufficient 

 alone. Yet some find more pleasure in the one side, and do well to make it their 

 chief study; while they should recognise the value of the other also, and learn 

 from it. 



It is especially on behalf of the work in the field that I now wish to plead. 

 There are few paths more likely to prove attractive to most students. The study 

 of the plants in their natural environments will lead to an understanding of their 



