370 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. II. No. 38. 



was written by Goodale in response to the 

 desire of Asa G-ray to have the' several parts 

 of his ' Text-book for Colleges ' expanded 

 into separate treatises in order to more fully 

 represent the status of botanical science. 

 As late as 1S72 Dr. Graj^ contemplated 

 writing the work himself, but his time prov- 

 ing insufficient he assigned the task to his 

 worthy colleague. The title is used in its 

 broad sense, and included histological 

 anatomy, ecology and caliologj', as well as 

 physiology proper, the last being by no 

 means the most conspicuous part of the 

 book. The encj^clopedic fulness of the work 

 better adapted it for a reference-book to ac- 

 company a course of lectures than as a text- 

 book. It greatly helped the science in 

 America however, especially as it stimu- 

 lated experimental studj' by a set of labora- 

 tory exercises given as an appendix. The 

 year following appeared Vines's ' Physiology 

 of Plants,' in some respects the most philo- 

 sophical and well-digested presentation of 

 the science yet written in anjr language ; 

 and only a year later still came Sach's new 

 treatise on the same subject. These two 

 works were too bulky to serve well as text- 

 books for undergraduate students, but were 

 a source of inspiration to maturer students 

 and to investigators. The present year, 

 completing the third decade since the phys- 

 iological epoch began, has seen the alto- 

 gether admirable, although brief, account 

 of the science by Vines, forming part of his 

 ' Text-book of Botanj',' and two excellent 

 laboratory manuals, one \)y Darwin and 

 Acton, of England, and the other an Eng- 

 lish adaptation, by MacDougal, of a German 

 work. With these treatises elementary in- 

 struction is well provided for, and their 

 effect is already seen in- the rapid introduc- 

 tion of the studjr as a portion of botanical 

 instruction in colleges, and even high 

 schools, throughout the country. 



Thus far only the pedagogical side of the 

 science has been brought prominentlj' for- 



ward; but what can we say of the research 

 side ? So far as America is concerned, 

 there is no research side; the science is 

 equipped and expanded with facts and 

 theories from foreign sources. A few papers 

 embodying original investigations have been 

 published by American teachers, but they 

 were the result of studies carried on in Ger- 

 man laboratories. A dozen or two papers 

 have, indeed, been issued from our own 

 laboratories within the last five years, but 

 all of them have been the work of students, 

 mostlj^ in preparation for a degree. America 

 has nothing to show that can in any wise 

 compare with the important discoveries 

 made and still being made by Francis 

 Darwin in England, De Vries in Holland, 

 Wiesner in Austria, or Sachs, Pfeffer, 

 Vochting, Frank and others in Germany. 

 There are ample reasons why this state of 

 things need not be considered humiliating, 

 and yet it is to be deplored as most unfor- 

 tunate. 



Let us turn to a hasty examination of 

 some of the problems of physiology which 

 await solution. They stand out prominently 

 in everj' chapter of the science, and suggest 

 to the scientific mind most temj)ting oppor- 

 tunities for original investigation . The nu- 

 trition of plants is so imperfectly iinder- 

 stood that it may appropriately be said to 

 be a bundle of problems. So little do we 

 know of the processes that even what con- 

 stitutes the plant's food is in doubt. We 

 know, for instance, that lime and magnesia 

 are taken into the plant, bu^t whether they 

 are directly nutritive by becoming part of 

 living molecules, or whether thej^ serve as 

 aids to nutritive processes, or become the 

 means of disposing of waste materials 

 within the organism, cannot be definitely 

 stated. And to a greater or less extent 

 similar conditions exist respecting potas- 

 sium, phosphorous, sulphur, iron and chlo- 

 rine, which in fact embrace all the so-called 

 mineral elements of plants. The move- 



