Febeuaht 6, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



123 



toward its final closing in; but a snapshot to- 

 day from certain positions looks very like a 

 snapshot taken a quarter-century ago except 

 that what seemed then to he temporary lean-tos 

 are beginning to look as if they belong where 

 we see them lOr to give unmistakable signs of 

 strengthening as well as amplifying the whole. 



Perhaps this is the impression made on the 

 superannuated workmen of a generation ago, 

 and of some of those whose activities have con- 

 tinued from the earlier time up to the present. 

 The idea of many who have come on to the job 

 within the past two decades is very different. 

 Under their own hands they have seen the 

 shaping of the gables and the rising of the 

 wings, and in their eyes these have given to the 

 whole a very different appearance from what 

 it presented when their work began. Indeed, 

 under their guidance, and from viewpoints of 

 their selection, it may scarcely look like the 

 sam.e edifice; and they may even point with 

 pride to a well-finished and symmetrical annex 

 in comparison with ragged parts of the main 

 wall still defaced by temporary scaffolding. 



The edifice of our science is less comparable 

 with a modern warehouse like the great sup- 

 ply-base that the army constructed in nine 

 months on the levee at 'New Orleans, than with 

 a medieval chateau that has been changed 

 from a feudal castle into a modernized home. 

 The first is planned and constructed as a whole, 

 and is consistent throughout. The other has 

 existed through and developed with the cen- 

 turies until most traces of its original plan — 

 if there ever was one — have become obliterated. 



Perhaps in this may be found explanation 

 of an impatience that is manifested sometimes 

 by botanists who do not like to see old sym- 

 metry changed, or by others who do not like 

 to see labor wasted on walls that are no longer 

 serviceable or to see these guarded from dis- 

 memberment so that their materials may be 

 used for additions. Both kinds of criticism 

 are likely to continue as long as construction 

 continues. It may prove a misfortune for bot- 

 any if either ceases, because the end of its use- 

 fulness will have come if it ever reach a stage 

 in which it can no longer be changed with the 

 changing times; but it will have become a 



ramshackle unserviceable monument if it ever 

 reach a stage in which it has lost the unifica- 

 tion of consistency in its details. 



The achievements of botany have been like 

 the achievements of nations in many respects, 

 indeed like human achievements in the aggre- 

 gate. It is impossible to trace its history with- 

 out seeing some of the factors whieh have con- 

 tributed to or retarded its advancement. Men 

 and incentive have been necessary in the first 

 place, opportunity in the second, and intelli- 

 gent leadership in the third. Of these, per- 

 haps, it may be said that "the first shall be 

 last, and the last first," without too great devi- 

 ation from, the truth. 



Men without leadership, even though they 

 have opportunity and incentive, do not usually 

 accomplish great things : and what unled men 

 have achieved has resulted from their ability 

 to plan for and lead themselves. They have 

 been pioneers whose restless spirit has led them 

 to spy out the land beyond the confines of the 

 known. From the reports or echoes of their 

 experiences has come knowledge that the lim- 

 its of the knowable lay beyond the limits of 

 the known as they found them; and their in- 

 dividual incursions have been followed ulti- 

 mately by the invasion of numbers of men 

 under the organization of leadters. 



These are the true settlers : their leaders are 

 the apostles of progress. Yet there rarely has 

 been a time when an exodus or a hegira has 

 been complete; and when it has, others less 

 happily circumstanced have found in what 

 was abandoned something to allure them from 

 what they already possessed. Even good lead- 

 ership, too, may have failed in adequate pre- 

 liminary knowledge or planning, and more 

 than once the new has proved inferior to the 

 old or has been abandoned under wiser or bet- 

 ter-informed guidance, or a generation and 

 more of men have wandered in the wilderness 

 before reaching the promised land; and lesser 

 and transient migraitions often have preceded 

 or accompanied a large movement. 



The founders of our science were pioneers 

 rather than leaders : men with restless minds, 

 no more satisfied with limitation of their field 

 of action when they could see beyond its 



