Febkttaky 5, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



191 



this country and offers a very fertile field 

 for investigation. 



Another phase of the origin of new forms 

 is one which opens up a large field for 

 research and ought to yield valuable re- 

 sults. This is the study of the changes in 

 naturalized plants. In all the older parts 

 of this country there are very many nat- 

 uralized plants, principally weeds, which 

 have been brought from abroad and are 

 mostly of European origin. Many of these 

 must have been introduced very early in 

 the settlement of the country, so that some 

 of them have been subjected to new envi- 

 ronmental conditions for a period of nearly 

 three hundred years. This ought in some 

 cases to have resulted in perceptible 

 changes, especially as these plants have not 

 been subjected to the same keen struggle 

 for existence which exists in their native 

 habitat, and sometimes at least, grow in 

 their new home with a vigor that one does 

 not see in their native land. It seems to 

 me that a careful study of some of these 

 introduced weeds in their new environment 

 and a comparison with the same species at 

 home ought to furnish some valuable data 

 in regard to some of the factors concerned 

 in the origin of new species. 



Finally, a critical study of variation in 

 our native plants and the conditions asso- 

 ciated with these should be of value in this 

 same connection. In California, especially, 

 the variations within the species are some- 

 times very marked and make the sep- 

 aration of species extremely difficult. 

 While some of these variations can be ex- 

 plained by the difference in the conditions 

 under which they grow, this is not always 

 the case, and undoubtedly there are marked 

 individual variations which can not be so 

 explained. Such studies made upon plants 

 in their natural surroundings should be 

 more valuable than those based on plants 

 growing under artificial conditions. 



What then is the present outlook for 

 botany in America ? Facilities are certainly 

 not wanting; equipment and aids to re- 

 search are equal to those anywhere, and 

 there surely is no lack of material and of 

 problems awaiting the right men. 



Are we going to attract to our profession 

 men of such capacity that the next genera- 

 tion is to win results commensurate with the 

 opportunities furnished by this rich and 

 generous country? Let us hope that we 

 shall soon become educated sufficiently to 

 appreciate the labors of the scientist apart 

 from their immediate pecuniary value, and 

 that the men who are endeavoring to extend 

 the boundaries of knowledge shall receive 

 adequate recognition. When this is true, 

 I think we may count on adding able re- 

 cruits to our forces, and these botanists of a 

 later day will be no mere adopters of ideas 

 borrowed from foreign sources, but will be 

 original investigators in the truest sense of 

 the word. These men will appreciate the 

 wealth of material lying immediately to 

 hand and the important problems of Amer- 

 ican botany will receive full attention. Of 

 course, I would not urge narrow provin- 

 cialism in the choice of subjects — that is as 

 far as possible from my thought — but I 

 mean that the investigator should seek in- 

 spiration from the sources to which he has 

 immediate access and not get it second 

 hand, no matter how illustrious the source 

 of inspiration may be. 



Only by this reliance upon himself by 

 the investigator can work of the highest 

 kind be accomplished. 



Douglas H. Campbell 



THE CABNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASH- 

 INGTON 



Nearly thirteen years have now elapsed 

 since the foundation of the institution in 



1 From the report of the president. Dr. E. S. 

 Woodward, for the year ending October 31, 1914. 



