82 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1256 



It may be more the function of others to 

 inspect the quaking edifice of civilization, to 

 ascertain and repair its weaknesses; but now 

 is certainly the opportmiity, and hence the 

 obligation, of scientific men to review their 

 sciences, to consider the relations of science, 

 be it zoological, botanical or geological, to 

 hujman life, human needs and human ideals. 

 This review should comprise both the pursuit 

 of science, research if you will, and also the 

 teaching of science. 



So far as the teaching of botany is con- 

 cerned, two such reviews have come to my 

 notice, one English, the other American.^ No 

 one, so far as I recall, has recently reviewed 

 the pursuit of botanical science in any more 

 public way than in addresses to professional 

 audiences, such as the botanical section of the 

 American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, and its afla.liated societies, and 

 even these reviews are only relatively recent. 



A glance at the botanical science of various 

 epochs in the past shows the changes in em- 

 phasis which teachers have given it, changes 

 in direction which its leaders have encouraged. 

 The well-known statement of Mrs. Lincoln,^ 

 which never fails to release a smile, if not to 

 arouse a laugh, whenever it is quoted, is but 

 one of many statements of the peculiar fitness 

 or of the importance of botanical study for a 

 part or the whole of the human race. But 

 in spite of these statements the world has 

 little idea of what botany really is or what its 

 devotees are trying to accomplish. Hence, 

 while to name a man a i^lant pathologist is to 

 connect his name with one of the branches of 

 botanical science, to call him a botanist is to 

 suggest to the mind of the average man some- 

 thing very different from the vigorous and 



2 See a series of contributions in numbers 1-6, 

 New Phytologist, 17, 1918, and Davis in Science, 

 N. S., 48, No. 1247, November 22, 1918. 



3 Lincoln, Mrs. Almira H., "Familiar Lectures 

 on Botany," 3d edition, Hartford, 1832, p. 14: 

 ' ' The study of botany seems peculiarly adapted to 

 females; the objects of its investigation are beauti- 

 ful and delicate; its pursuits, leading to exercise in 

 the open air, are conducive to health and cheerful- 

 ness." 



virile person capable of working hard a good 

 many more than eight hours a day and play- 

 ing at least equally hard besides. Why is 

 this? The explanation seems to be that the 

 various branches of botanical science have 

 themselves forgotten their origin, soon after 

 they became independent, and the rest of the 

 world never knew or cared. ^Hiat " man in 

 the street " is aware that the present science 

 of bacteriology had its foundations laid and 

 its first story built in botanical laboratories, 

 and that even now bacteriological papers come 

 from the same source? Forestry is botanical 

 science applied to trees and the accompany- 

 ing vegetation of the forest, and no forester 

 is anything more than an administrator, no 

 matter how much engineering, entomology 

 and geology he may know, imless he is first 

 and foremost a botanist, versed in the anatomy 

 and physiology of the trees which he is to 

 sow, cultivate, protect from damage by dis- 

 ease, animals and fire, and to harvest. Horti- 

 culturists, agriculturalists, farmers, are bot- 

 anists as well as the New Englandish spinster 

 who " analyzes " some of the by-products of a 

 smnmer vacation. By superior organization, 

 , admirable enthusiasm, and freedom from that 

 excess of modesty which has been one of the 

 misfortunes of botanists, every one knows of 

 plant pathologists and of plant pathology. 

 But the plant pathologist can not recognize a 

 diseased plaiat unless he knows what it looks 

 like when it is well, he can not tell what is 

 wrong about its functions unless he knows 

 the normal ones. 



All of these men are applying, consciously 

 or unconsciously, what has been learned 

 through the experience of the race and the 

 deliberate investigations of the few. Wlien- 

 ever the fruits of " pure science " can be used, 

 they become applied science or " practical." 

 But nothing can be applied that is not first 

 found out, and the changing requirements of 

 the world make new demands upon the stores 

 of knowledge acquired by study and by ex- 

 perience. The careful housewife draws out 

 from her stores in attic and closet what she 

 has put away as prospectively but not imme- 

 diately useful, and thereby she saves unnec- 



