September 20, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



365 



for which Professor Verworn, of Jena, 

 made such an impassioned plea in the Mo- 

 nist about a year ago. " We find," said he, 

 " that even the minutest cell exhibits all the 

 elementary phenomena of life, that it 

 breathes and takes nourishment, that it 

 grows and propagates itself, that it moves 

 and reacts against stimuli," and he urged 

 that therefore far more attention should be 

 given to this department of physiology, as 

 the key to many complicated processes . The 

 physiological study of the cell, including 

 both its reproductive and vegetative aspects, 

 in so far as they may be considered the nas- 

 cent functions of the elementary parts of 

 the organism, may be conveniently consid- 

 ered under a single heading, ' caliology.' 



Passing to the physiology of the adult 

 organism, a little reflection will show that 

 the activities of the plant may be consid- 

 ered from two standpoints : that of the 

 plant's individual economy, and that of the 

 plant's social economy, or its relation to 

 other plants and animals and the world at 

 large. Looking at the latter phase more 

 closely, we shall find that the subject con- 

 tains some of the most interesting topics in 

 the range of botany, which appeal especi- 

 ally to the lover of nature, without losing 

 their value as problems of the deepest sci- 

 entific import. Among the relations of 

 plants to the world at large may be men- 

 tioned the influence of climate, the means 

 of protection against rain, drouth aud 

 cold, adaptation to the medium in which 

 the plant grows and the establishment 

 of rhythmical periods. Among the rela- 

 tions of plants to animals are those in- 

 teresting chapters in the pollination of 

 flowers by insects, the contrivances by 

 which plants with a predilection for highly 

 nitrogenous food may capture and feed 

 upon insects, and the means adopted by 

 plants to prevent injury from large animals, 

 which are more or less familiar to the gen- 

 eral public through the writings of Charles 



Darwin. Among the relations of plants to 

 one another comes foremosb the struggle 

 for existence, bringing into play the laws of 

 natural selection and the survival of the 

 fittest, together with much else that is now 

 known under the head of evolution, followed 

 by various phases of parasitism, mutualism 

 and other topics. Is it not evident from 

 this hasty and by no means complete outline 

 that here is a portion of physiology which 

 appeals to all classes of thoughtful persons, 

 rich in possibilities for the philosophical and 

 speculative mind, and bristling with queries 

 demanding experimental solution ? 



Although this department of physiology 

 has received much attention here and there 

 for a long time, and some of its topics are 

 well understood, yet only very recently 

 has it fallen into place as a systematic part 

 of the general subject, and no separate pre- 

 sentation of it has yet appeared in English, 

 and only two works in German. There is 

 some confusion regarding the name of the 

 science. The Germans call it ' biology,' 

 which may serve to emphasize the impor- 

 tance of regarding the plant as a living, 

 plastic being, but is not an exclusory term, 

 and also does violence to its philological 

 derivation. Even the recently proposed 

 modification into phytobiology does not 

 much improve the term. The English 

 usage of the word biology, as so admirably 

 set forth by Huxley, and more or less con- 

 sistently adopted in this country, leaves no 

 place to introduce the imperfect usage of 

 the Germans. Two years ago, in his wholly 

 delightful ' Chapters in Modern Botany,' 

 Patrick Geddes proposed the term ' bio- 

 nomics.' The same year, however, a better 

 term was advocated almost simultaneously 

 in England and America. The Madison 

 Botanical Congress indorsed the word 

 ' ecology ' as the designation of this part of 

 physiology; and only a few days later Pro- 

 fessor Burdon-Sanderson, in his Presidential 

 address before the biological section of the 



