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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1138 



services of two of our colonial botanists? 

 Mr. W. H. Maiden, of Sydney, who has 

 done so much in Australia for the develop- 

 ment of botany and its applications in his 

 position as government botanist and di- 

 rector of the Botanic Gardens at Sydney, 

 and whose kindness some of us have good 

 cause to remember on the occasion of the 

 visit of this association to Sydney in 1914; 

 and Professor W. H. Pearson, of Cape 

 Town, who is doing useful work of botan- 

 ical exploration in Southwest Africa. 



A little more than two years ago, during 

 the enforced but pleasant leisure of our 

 passage across the Indian Ocean to Aus- 

 tralia, I was discussing with our president 

 for the year the possibility of a war with 

 Germany. He was confident that sooner or 

 later it was bound to come. I was doubt- 

 ful. ' ' But what will prevent it ? " asked my 

 companion. "The common sense of the 

 majority," was my reply. He was right 

 and I was wrong, but I think he was only 

 less surprised than myself when next eve- 

 ning we heard, by wireless, rumors of the 

 outbreak of what rapidly developed into 

 the great European war. But even a few 

 weeks later, when Germany was pressing 

 westwards, and the very existence of our 

 Empire was threatened, we hardly began 

 to appreciate what it would mean, and we 

 still talked of the possibility of an Inter- 

 national Botanical Congress in 1915. 



We know more now, and I need not 

 apologize for considering in my address the 

 part which botanists can take in the near 

 future, especially after the war. For one 

 thing at least is certain, we are two years 

 nearer the end than when it began, and 

 let us see to it that we are not as backward 

 in preparing for post-war as we were for 

 war problems. 



Some months ago the various sectional 

 committees received a request to consider 

 what could be done in their respective sec- 



tions to meet problems which would arise 

 after the war. Your committee met and 

 discussed the matter, with the result that 

 a set of queries was sent round to repre- 

 sentative botanists asking that suggestions 

 might be presented for consideration by the 

 committee. A number of suggestions were 

 received of a very varied kind, indicating 

 that in the opinion of many botanists at 

 any rate much might be done to utilize our 

 science and its trained workers in the inter- 

 ests of the state and empire. Your com- 

 mittee decided to arrange for reports to be 

 prepared on several of the more important 

 aspects by members who were specially 

 fitted to discuss these aspects, and these 

 will be presented in the course of the meet- 

 ing. These reports will, I am convinced, 

 be of great value, and may lead to helpful 

 discusssion ; they may also open up the way 

 to useful work. 



For my own part, while I might have 

 preferred to consider in my address some 

 subject of more purely botanical interest, 

 I felt that under the circumstances an 

 academic discourse would be out of place, 

 and that I too must endeavor to do some- 

 thing to effect a more cordial understanding 

 between botany and its economic applica- 

 tions. 



For many of us this means the break- 

 ing of new ground. We have taken up the 

 science because we loved it, and if we have 

 been able to shed any light on its numerous 

 problems the work has brought its own 

 reward. But some of us have on occasion 

 been brought into touch with economic 

 problems, and such must have felt how in- 

 adequate was our national equipment for 

 dealing with some of these. In recent years 

 we have made several beginnings, but these 

 beginnings must expand mightily if pres- 

 ent and future needs are to be adequately 

 met and if we are determined to make the 

 best use of the material to our hand. 



