r34 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1012 



plants has been of fundamental impor- 

 tance to man, since upon them he has ever 

 looked not only as the chief source of the 

 three great necessities, food, clothing and 

 shelter, but also as the means whereby he 

 might cure his bodily ills or otherwise con- 

 tribute to his comfort and satisfaction. As 

 society became more and more highly or- 

 ganized, there emerged groups of men 

 whose interest centered upon some particu- 

 lar phase of plant utilization which 

 through long-continued study and observa- 

 tion became sufficiently developed to be 

 recog-nized as an art. The lineal descend- 

 ants of these groups we recognize to-day in 

 our practical gardeners, horticulturists, 

 foresters, agriculturists and pharmacists. 

 The radical difference in the point of view, 

 between those devoted to botany as a sci- 

 ence and those engaged in the practise of 

 its art, ultimately led to the development 

 of a species of class consciousness more than 

 traces of which unfortunately are still in 

 existence. The botanist dazzled by con- 

 tinued contemplation of the aphorism 

 "science for science's sake" became un- 

 able to see any science in the practise of the 

 art of botany, and relegated its followers 

 to the limbo of tradesmen along with the 

 smiths, the carpenters and the shoemakers. 

 On the other hand, the groups interested in 

 the practical or industrial aspects of plants 

 came to look upon the professional botanist 

 as a harmless individual who succeeded 

 very well in entertaining himself, but 

 whose activities were of little if any signifi- 

 cance to those whose primary interest in 

 plants was utilitarian. 



This class conscious attitude on the part 

 of those who approached the study of plant 

 problems from such widely different points 

 of view led to results of the most profound 

 significance. Botanists in their zeal to pre- 

 serve their ideal unsullied, and in their 

 fear lest utility should obscure its luster 



devoted themselves almost exclusively to a 

 dendritic development of their science, the 

 industrial branches of which remained 

 rudimentary if they were not wanting en- 

 tirely. Until within recent years, the con- 

 cept of the function and content of the in- 

 struction in botany given in our colleges 

 and universities was derived purely from a 

 consideration of the philosophical aspect 

 of botany. In some institutions at least 

 the sentiment prevailed that the courses in 

 botany planned primarily to develop tiie 

 scientific attitude of mind and habits uf 

 thought, had as their chief and legitimate 

 goal the training of students to become 

 teachers of botany. But notwithstanding 

 the increase in the number of institutions 

 of learning, and the consequent multipli- 

 cation of opportunities for the teacher of 

 this subject to secure a position in which 

 he could maintain himself in a modest way, 

 the possibility of earning a livelihood as a 

 teacher became more and more remote, as 

 an increasingly large number of students 

 graduated axid became available as teach- 

 ers of botany. The inevitable consequence 

 was that many men were turned aside from 

 the pursuit of botany as a profession and 

 entered upon other vocations, which prom- 

 ised to be more remunerative. 



But at length there dawned a new con- 

 ception of botany, one destined not only to 

 modify profoundly the opinion of the pub- 

 lic at large with respect to this science, and 

 to revolutionize in many respects the atti- 

 tude of its exponents in the lecture room 

 and laboratory, but also to pave the way for 

 bringing into sympathetic understanding 

 the workers in widely separated fields of 

 botanical activity. The causes underlying 

 the development of this new conception, 

 which in brief is the recognition of the fact 

 that botany may be utilitarian and still be 

 botany — may be reduced to two, one of 

 which is economic, and the other social. 



