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SCIENCE 



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



nition as one of the permanent forces under- 

 lying social progress and activity. Time 

 will bring greater and more insistent de- 

 mands for the extension of inquiry into 

 every field where the application of the 

 fundamental laws and principles developed 

 through the scientific study of botany 

 promises to minister to the needs of human- 

 ity. The organization and direction of the 

 botanical work of the immediate future, 

 in a manner that will preserve the proper 

 balance and correlation between scientific 

 research of the broadest and most funda- 

 mental character, and investigations under- 

 taken largely or entirely for economic ends 

 can be successfully accomplished by men 

 who are not only broadly trained botanists, 

 but who are men of affairs, as well. 



Scientific progress is not accomplished 

 by the mere accumulation of knowledge, 

 but follows only when knowledge is com- 

 municated and brought within the grasp of 

 all who are able to utilize it in any phase 

 of human endeavor. The rapidity with 

 which new knowledge makes its way and 

 the extent to which it finds ready accept- 

 ance and assimilation depends upon the 

 terms in which it is formulated, upon the 

 clearness and thoroughness with which its 

 relationship to other forms of knowledge 

 is presented, and upon the number and 

 variety of its possible applications which 

 may be pointed out. Manifestly, he who 

 will succeed best not only in securing the 

 fullest appreciation and utilization of the 

 results of his work, but also in obtaining 

 merited personal recognition for his serv- 

 ices, is he who retains a broad and liberal 

 point of view with respect to the related 

 branches of his science, and who is able to 

 put himself into sympathetic relations with 

 men who differ widely in interest and 

 activity. 



The scientific worker who would remain 

 in the most active lines of modern prog- 



ress, and who appreciates the disappoint- 

 ments and discouragements that often fall 

 to the lot of one who has failed to keep in 

 sympathetic relations with the spirit and 

 purpose of the age in which he lives, will 

 find it desirable not only to acquaint him- 

 self with developments in lines of scien- 

 tific investigation widely separated from 

 his own, but also to extend the scope of 

 his mental horizon until he can obtain a 

 clear view of the readjustments and changes 

 which are constantly taking place in the 

 domains of industry and education and in 

 the fields of political and social affairs. 

 The idea here expressed may be regarded 

 as wholly fatuous and incapable of realiza- 

 tion, but the fact remains that specializa- 

 tion alone will lead to a dendritic or tree- 

 like development of science, which instead 

 of conducing to general progress, will ulti- 

 mately operate as a hindrance to it. In- 

 deed, the development of a science is in 

 many respects analogous to the evolution 

 of a species of organisms, for just as the 

 latter make evolutionary progress (I here 

 quote a well-known writer on organic evo- 

 lution) only through being "connected with 

 each other by an intricate network of 

 descent in the weaving of which the diver- 

 sities of the members of a species have a 

 definite physiological value," so will a sci- 

 ence approximate the maximum limit to 

 its capacity for progress only through the 

 continuous interaction of the ideas and the 

 integration of the principles developed in 

 its various phases and aspects. 



It is a social obligation of the botanist 

 to study processes, to penetrate more 

 deeply into the mighty forces of organic 

 nature to the end that they may be brought 

 more completely under the control and 

 direction of man. The satisfaction of 

 human wants is in a large degree dependent 

 upon processes which have been slowly built 

 up by plants through countless ages of 



