12 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 940 



duplication, have begun suggesting more 

 harmonioiTS planning, one station to empha- 

 size this line of investigation, and another 

 that line, instead of working quite inde- 

 pendently of one another. This beginning 

 is suggestive of what might and should be 

 done elsewhere. 



And we shall not confine unification and 

 coordination to investigation alone, but will 

 carry it into the teaching departments. As 

 a matter of course the more general aspects 

 of the science must find place in every col- 

 lege department of botany, requiring to 

 this extent the quite legitimate duplication 

 of the best laboratory and other facilities 

 that can be provided. But beyond this the 

 duplication should cease, especially of fa- 

 cilities that are costly in installation and 

 maintenance. When we fully reach a con- 

 dition of scientific sanity we shall agree 

 upon such a program as will assign partic- 

 ular fields of work to those institutions 

 that are best able to care for them, and it 

 follows that students will be sent to these 

 for such specialties. In the case of the 

 state institutions there is already the be- 

 ginning of the attempt to reduce needless 

 duplication — in some instances crudely and 

 awkwardly, it is true — but the significant 

 thing is that there is already an attempt to 

 reduce duplication. Which suggests that 

 ' ' the children of this world are in their gen- 

 eration wiser than the children of light." 



This is not the place for the discussion of 

 the details of the educational cooperation 

 which is coming — a cooperation which will 

 result in a conservation of educational 

 energy. As the details are needed they will 

 be worked out, but I may be permitted to 

 suggest that in the near future we shall 

 reach a solution something like the follow- 

 ing: 



(a) That the small colleges shall pro- 

 vide a standard course in general botany, 

 with adequate facilities as to material and 

 apparatus. 



(6) That the larger colleges and uni- 

 versities shall provide an identical stand- 

 ard course for those of its students who 

 have not pursued this subject in the small 

 colleges, and to this they will add certain 

 advanced, also standardized, courses, re- 

 quiring facilities beyond the reach of the 

 small colleges. 



(c) Then will come, especially in the 

 state-supported schools, such advanced 

 courses as are required by the nature of 

 the institutions, and the needs of each par- 

 ticular state ; as the study of useful plants, 

 noxious plants, local systematic botany, 

 dendrology, pathology, etc. 



(d) Last will come a division of labor 

 with regard to the more profound lines of 

 research and teaching. Certain favored 

 institutions will place especial emphasis 

 upon minute anatomy (cytology and his- 

 tology), or special morphology, or phys- 

 iology, or plant breeding, or ecology, or 

 phytogeography, or special taxonomy, or 

 general and experimental evolution, or 

 botanical history, etc. 



These suggestions are not chimerical. 

 They are indicated by the recent trend of 

 scientific thought, which recognizes more 

 and more the value of the conservation of 

 human effort. And as I look into the fu- 

 ture a vision rises before me of the scien- 

 tific army, working harmoniously like well- 

 drilled soldiers, and not wasting their 

 strength by turning their guns on one an- 

 other. In this army of science I see a 

 company of thoroughly disciplined botan- 

 ists who in orderly fashion plan their cam- 

 paign. And, from the many doing severe 

 garrison duty in the small colleges, to the 

 heavy artillerymen in the big university 

 fortifications, and the few isolated scouts 

 along the frontier of special investigation, 

 all are actuated by a common spirit of 

 scientific patriotism and loyalty. 



This, my botanical brothers, is what the 



