January 3, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



11 



versity campus are to be abandoned. Far 

 from it. As the work in the field labora- 

 tories is enlarged there will be still greater 

 need of the far more exact work that can 

 be done only in laboratories where every 

 factor can be perfectly controlled. There 

 will still be need, greater need I might say, 

 for perfectly constructed plant-houses in 

 which we may observe plants under con- 

 trolled conditions, and where we may in- 

 crease or decrease this or that factor at 

 will. I emphasize this point because there 

 are some who prophesy the eventual aban- 

 donment of the precision laboratory in bot- 

 any, when in fact everything points to the 

 opposite conclusion. 



Another kind of station, of which we 

 have now only the beginnings, is one which 

 will carry the results of plant breeding into 

 the domain of phylogeny. Of this we have 

 now some faint suggestions, which must 

 grow into far reaching results under the 

 direction of men who know more of the sub- 

 ject than we do now. It may be that such 

 stations will then, as now, have a strong 

 economic bias, but this will not so narrow 

 them as to exclude the phylogenetie aspects 

 of the work they are doing. In such lab- 

 oratories we shall be able to see how evolu- 

 tion has contributed to the present wonder- 

 ful diversity of form and size and color and 

 habit among related plants. Such labora- 

 tories will enable us to answer the demand 

 formerly so often made, but less often 

 heard now, for a demonstration of cases of 

 actual evolution. Although such cases are 

 well known to botanists, their occurrence 

 has hitherto not been such as to admit of 

 easy citation for purposes of popular dem- 

 onstration. So I regard the breeding lab- 

 oratories of the future as welcome additions 

 to the means of demonstration which sci- 

 ence will possess. 



Unity of Action.- — Allow me to look once 

 more into that future which holds so much 



of promise for botany. I am assured as I 

 consider the trend of scientific thought that 

 there will be greater unity of action among 

 the botanists of the country. At present we 

 are still in the guerrilla stage of botany, in 

 which every man acts independently and 

 for himself. And it must be admitted that 

 much effective work is done by guerrillas in 

 war and in science, but in both there is far 

 too much waste of energy. Let me pause 

 a moment to explain more fully what I 

 mean by this guerrilla condition in botany. 

 Although we profess to be botanists acting 

 for the best interests of science, we have 

 actually no uniform standard by which we 

 may measure our actions. In one particu- 

 lar we have tried to set up a standard, in 

 certain international rules pertaining to 

 nomenclature: and yet after several con- 

 gresses of botanists we have the humilia- 

 ting spectacle of a set of laws that nearly 

 everybody disobeys ! In other matters also, 

 every man does as he pleases ; and the worst 

 of it is that he vehemently defends this 

 free, untrammeled mode of action. We 

 have been guerrillas so long that we resent 

 the suggestion of conformity to any regula- 

 tion. 



Brethren of the ancient order of botan- 

 ists, this is scientifically quite unseemly. 

 We must cease this personally independent, 

 but disorderly life, and enroll ourselves in 

 the regular army as good soldiers who will 

 obey orders, and who will act in unison for 

 the common good. And this is no illusory 

 vision. It is one of the things that the fu- 

 ture will bring us, yes, I may say, is bring- 

 ing us. For already we find the beginnings of 

 a reduction of some of the disorder in certain 

 fields of work. In the management of the 

 work of the agricultural experiment sta- 

 tions there are hopeful signs of a healthy 

 progress. Certain officers in Washington, 

 having general supervision over the sta- 

 tions, seeing that there is much useless 



