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SCIEKCE. 



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



the science have been mapped. The fasci- 

 nating and epoch-making observations of 

 Charles Darwin on the pollination of orchids 

 and other flowers, at the same time bring- 

 ing to light the long lost Pompeian-like 

 treasures of Sprengel, gave an impulse to a 

 line of study still full of promise. The ex- 

 tensive writings of Miiller, Delpino, and 

 in our own country Charles Robertson, have 

 provided large stores of knowledge, and at 

 the same time opened up attractive vistas 

 for further observation. 



Thus we might enumerate many other 

 topics, which are more or less familiar to 

 every one having the slightest acquaintance 

 with botany, and to some others as well. 

 If we ask how these matters came to be so 

 widely known, the answer is not far to seek, 

 and not obscure. The marvellous inspira- 

 tion which came with the writings of 

 Charles Darwin, and the fact that he culti- 

 vated ecological subjects more than any 

 other, together with his theories of adapta- 

 tion and natural selection \yhich provided a 

 key to the riddles of nature, making what 

 were before matters of course now matters 

 of the liveliest import, turned the attention 

 of the botanical world, and of all other 

 lovers of plants as well, even of some who 

 cannot be placed in either class, in this di- 

 rection. We may call Darwin the father 

 of vegetable ecology, for had he not written, 

 the field would have lain largely unculti- 

 vated and uninteresting. 



In America the year 1887 saw the estab- 

 lishment of a series of State institutions, 

 which gave a wonderful influence to the 

 study of ecologj'. American botany owes 

 much to the Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tions, especially in promoting a knowledge 

 of vegetable pathology and ecology. To- 

 gether with the Agricultural Department of 

 the general government, they have enabled 

 American botanists to become the leading 

 investigators and writers upon pathological 

 subjects, giving a position and imparting a 



value to the science of plant diseases, both 

 scientific and practical, that ten j'ears ago 

 would have been inconceivable. "What has 

 been done for pathology is likely to be done 

 for ecology, as it is the second subject in 

 importance cultivated by. station botanists. 

 In the latter science the assistance of the 

 Agricultural Colleges is also important, for 

 in a few years the subject will undoubtedly 

 hold a commanding position in the curri- 

 culum of the agricultural and general sci- 

 ence courses of these institutions, and be re- 

 garded as the culminating and leading 

 feature of a course of botanical studj'. It 

 may seem presumptuous and fanciful to 

 claim so much and be so positive in face of 

 the fact that at the present time the subject 

 is a nomen incognitum to the makers of cur- 

 ricula in these institutions; but careful ex- 

 amination of the subject-matter of the sci- 

 ence shows that even in its present rather 

 chaotic condition it embraces more points 

 of vital interest to the lover and cultivator 

 of plants than other departments of botany, 

 being less recondite, and yet at the same 

 time underlaid with a broad and attractive 

 philosophJ^ What is most needed at pres- 

 ent is a suitable text-book; for the value of 

 the subject will be more quicklj^ recognized 

 when it is displayed in well arranged form. 

 It would be interesting and profitable to 

 take a survey of the development of the 

 different branches and topics of the science, 

 but I shall content myself with barely men- 

 tioning one or two which especially flourish 

 in this country. Recently a new life has 

 been infused into the studj' of floras and 

 the distribution of plants by what is called 

 the ' biological ' method, the inspiration 

 having been derived in the first place from 

 the zoologists. This method, which has so 

 far been most successfuUj^ applied to limited 

 areas in the western part of the United States, 

 undertakes an explanation of the present 

 location of forms by considering severally 

 and collectively the various external and 



