SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—K. 487 
would involve the outbreeding of university staffs, intimate relationships with non- 
academic agricultural, horticultural, forestry and industrial institutions of both 
research and of practical nature and botanical organisation comparable with hospital 
training in medicine or works experience in engineering. The necessary facilities for 
such a training could perhaps be organised profitably and adequately at one or two 
centres only, and it would need to be recognised that students embarking upon a 
career of industrial or economic botany and not ‘ academic’ teaching would proceed 
for their education to those centres. The basic ideas of the training would be, on 
the one hand, the realisation by the student that botany is not a subject of scholastic 
or cultural value only, but has its real root and justification in the practical problems 
of industrial and agricultural life and, on the other hand, not only the education of 
the student’s mind but the acquisition by him of such knowledge and such 
experience as would ensure that he become a competent worker in the economic as 
well as in the scholastic sense. 
Mr. J. Ramsportom. 
In training botanists for economic and industrial posts it is essential that they 
should first undergo a course in general botany, in which the principles of the subject 
are studied. With this foundation the specialised study becomes more easy of attain- 
ment and more certain in its application. Considering these posts from the point 
of view of a taxonomist one sees that a working knowledge of classification plays a 
greater part than is usually recognised. Some have obviously little concern with 
taxonomy in general, though even here the success of a project may depend upon 
the certainty of an identification. The majority, however, need a much wider outlook 
on taxonomy than is at present obtainable at most of our universities. 
The courses in botanical training at the universities have undergone little real 
change during recent years, though the majority of botanical posts, as such, are no 
longer at the universities; moreover, botany taught in schools is mainly a diluted 
university course. 
It is not possible to cover the whole field of botany at a university and, conse- 
quently, if the courses were reorientated so as to give proper attention to the teaching 
of the principles of taxonomy uo loss in value as a discipline would result ; ‘ botanical 
classification, when complete and correct, will be an epitome of our knowledge of 
lants.’ 
3 The facilities so far as they exist for post-graduate training in the practice of 
taxonomy are in need of drastic overhauling. The kind of training should be related 
to fitting a man for the post he is to occupy, not to producing a herbarium systematist. 
If the universities are unable to supply the whole of the necessary training, an attempt 
should be made to arrange for this to be undertaken elsewhere. 
Tuesday, September 29. 
(Section meeting in two divisions.) 
Division 1. 
Discussion on Factors Governing the Distribution of Plants. 
Division 2. 
Series of Papers on certain aspects of Plant Physiology (as below). 
Dr. F. G. Grucory.—The Control of Physiological Processes in the Barley 
Plant by Mineral Nutrition. 
Dr. F. C. Stewarv.—The Accumulation of Solutes by Living Cells : Some 
Experimental Results. 
An experimental examination of the environmental conditions which determine 
the absorption and accumulation of potassium bromide from dilute aqueous solution 
by potato tissue revealed that there is an intimate connection between salt absorption 
and the respiration rate of the tissue. A suitable technique was devised which 
secured maximum absorption and also admitted of satisfactory control of all the 
known variables affecting absorption by storage tissue (temperature, oxygeu-carbon- 
