518 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1137 



the laws of nature and extend the realm of 

 human knowledge. 



By every means in our power, therefore, 

 let us show our appreciation of pure sci- 

 ence and let us forward the work of the 

 pure scientists, for they are the advance 

 guard of civilization. They point the way 

 which we must follow. Let us arouse the 

 people of our country to the wonderful 

 possibilities of scientific discovery and to 

 the responsibility to support it which rests 

 upon them and I am sure that they will 

 respond generously and effectively. Then 

 I am confident that in the future the mem- 

 bers of this institute, together with their 

 colleagues in all of the other branches of 

 engineering and applied science, as well as 

 the physician and surgeon, by utilizing the 

 discoveries of pure science yet to be made, 

 will develop without marvelous new agen- 

 cies for the comfort and convenience of 

 man and for the alleviation of human suf- 

 fering. These, gentlemen, are some of the 

 considerations which have led me here in 

 my presidential address to urge upon you 

 the importance of a proper understanding 

 of the relations between pure science and 

 industrial research. 



J. J. Caett 



THE BOTANICAL FIELD EXCURSION 

 IN COLLEGIATE WORK 



The standard college course in general 

 botany occupies a well-defined field, and is 

 concerned with pedagogical problems quite dis- 

 tinct from those of the secondary school on the 

 one hand, and of the university on the other. 

 Many of the defects and shortcomings of col- 

 legiate botany as taught have been due to the 

 fallacious idea that college botany is merely 

 university botany pruned down to meet the 

 supposititious mental ability of the college stu- 

 dent. The ideas and technique of the uni- 

 versity research laboratory have frequently 

 been transplanted en bloc into the college class- 

 room, with resultant pedagogic malpractise and 

 scientific inefficiency. 



College and university men are coming to 

 realize more and more clearly that the uni- 

 versity research laboratory has its peculiar 

 problems, for which work it should be dili- 

 gently protected and fostered; and also that 

 the American college as an institution has its 

 distinctive field and problems, and that the two 

 fields, overlapping here and there, are on the 

 whole widely separated from one another. 



One of the notable lines of weakness of the 

 collegiate course in general botany that has 

 come to the writer's attention, is the com- 

 paratively rare or infrequent use of the field 

 excursion. The usual schedule, to be found in 

 most American colleges, consists of one or two 

 trips in the autumn, a long winter session re- 

 stricted almost exclusively to laboratory exer- 

 cises, and a few desultory spring trips to col- 

 lect flowering plants. 



There are a number of factors which have 

 combined to bring about this state of affairs. 

 Most botany teachers are primarily laboratory- 

 trained men. Frequently they are not very 

 well acquainted with the region in which they 

 teach. In many instances their own university 

 work in botany was confined largely to the 

 cytological, histological or morphological as- 

 pects of the science ; with little or no practical 

 training in field work, either from the scien- 

 tific or pedagogical viewpoint. In most regions 

 a large portion of the academic year is winter 

 time, with much inclement weather, and plant 

 life at a standstill. Laboratory exercises can 

 be planned with much greater certainty and 

 precision than can field trips. The problems 

 of transportation and discipline on the field 

 trip, particularly if the class be large, are 

 often difficult and annoying. It involves much 

 planning and extra work to break up a large 

 class into small sections for field work. Field 

 trips are time consuming, and in many regions 

 the places of greatest botanic interest lie at 

 a considerable distance from the college build- 

 ings. There are a great number of excellent 

 printed outlines covering all the standard labo- 

 ratory exercises and experiments; these labo- 

 ratory guides and manuals are ready-made for 

 the teacher's use, while field trips require the 

 laborious preparation of special outlines by the 



