360 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 38. 



increasing the longitudinal shearing surface 

 which would otherwise be required. 



The officers of the Section elected for the 

 next year by the Association are Professor 

 F. O. Marvin, of the University of Kansas, 

 for Chairman, and Professor J. Galbraith, 

 of the School of Practical Science, of To- 

 ronto, Canada, for Secretary. 



DEVELOPMENT OF VEGETABLE 

 PHYSIOLOGY.'^ 



There is a certain fitness in bringing 

 before the section of this Association, which 

 has been most recently established, some 

 account of that department of botanical 

 science which is one of the latest to be 

 brought into notice as a grand division of 

 the subject. For vegetable physiology, the 

 topic which is to engage our attention, is 

 like a western or African domain, long in- 

 habited at the more accessible points, more 

 or less explored over the larger portion, but 

 with undefined boundaries in some direc- 

 tions, and with rich and important regions 

 for some time known to the explorer, but 

 only now coming to the attention of the 

 general public. In fact, our domain of 

 vegetable physiology is found to be a diver- 

 sified one, in some parts by the application 

 of chemical and physical methods yielding 

 rich gold and gems, in other parts coming 

 nearer to every man's daily interests with 

 its fruits and grains. Thus it comes about 

 that, before the public is well acquainted 

 with the name of the science, it has differ- 

 entiated itself into two or three sciences 

 having quite separate objects in view. 



It is the purpose of this address to ac- 

 quaint you with the growth and present 

 outlines of the group of sciences which for 

 convenience are included under the heading 

 of vegetable physiology, and also to show 

 why they deserve recognition as important 



*Address of the Vice-President, Section- G., Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Science at 

 the Springfield Meeting, August 29, 1895. 



constituents of a liberal education along 

 with other natural sciences. The point of 

 view at all times will be that of the Ameri- 

 can botanist. 



In the development of botany in America 

 the science has passed through successive 

 waves or stages of popularity, constantly 

 increasing in momentum, widening its scope 

 by evolution of new interests, and more and 

 more exhibiting virility by its adaptability 

 to the needs of the times. That botany has 

 in it something that may be transmuted 

 into money has only recently been dis- 

 covered, but it is a discovery that is likely 

 to work benefit not only to the practical 

 man who makes application of scientific 

 truths to commercial ends, but also recipro- 

 callj^ to the investigator who thinks only 

 of uncovering a new fact or establishing a 

 new law. To adequately meet the require- 

 ments of modern botany in the way of 

 laboratories, gardens, herbaria, libraries 

 and apparatus requires a capital that not 

 long since would have been deemed fabu- 

 lous. The money to meet this demand of 

 a growing science must be expected to come 

 in the main as the voluntarj' contribution 

 of an interested public — the reciprocal re- 

 sponse to the attitude of botany toward the 

 general welfare. 



I have mentioned the economic aspect of 

 botany thus early, because it is one of the 

 significant changes which has come over the 

 science within the last decade or two, and 

 to which vegetable physiology in some of 

 its features is, I venture to saj^, about to 

 add further important contributions. Sci- 

 ence no longer shrinks into the shadow of 

 the closet for fear of being implored to lend 

 a hand at securing revenue, but steps forth 

 and curiouslj' scrutinizes every process of 

 the practical world, often finding there 

 its most fruitful fields for fundamental 

 research. 



The problems of vegetable physiology 

 possess to a greater or less degree a special 



