SCIENCE 



Friday, June 26, 1914 



CONTENTS 

 The Trend and Influence of Certain Phases 

 of Taxonomy: Pkofessoe Aven Nelson . . 921 



An Experimental Determination of the 

 Earth's Elastic Properties: Professor 

 Heney G. Gale 927 



Eduard Suess: Peofessoe Chas. Sohucheet. 933 



Scientific Notes and News 935 



University and Education^ News 939 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 

 Dadourian's Analytical Mechanics: Peo- 

 fessoe E. W. Rettger. Accessory Chromo- 

 somes in Man: Peopessor M. F. Guyer .... 940 



Scientific BooT^s: — 



Smith's Chemistry in America: Dr. Ira 

 Eemsen. Das Relativitdtsprinsip : Peo- 

 fessoe E. B. Wilson. Nottram on Con- 

 trolled Natural Selection: Professor W. E. 

 Castle 942 



The American Ephemeris and Nautical Alma- 

 nac for 1916: J. A. Hoogewebff 945 



Botanical Notes: — 

 Forest Tree Diseases; Another Tree Booh; 

 A Pharm-aceutical Botany; Flora of South- 

 eastern Washington; More Florida Manuals; 

 Short Notes: Professor Charles E. 

 Bessey 946 



Special Articles: — ■ 

 Cell Permeability for Acids: Professor E. 

 Newton Haevey. A Destructive Strawberry 

 Disease: Professor F. L. Stevens 947 



The American Chemical Society: Dr. Charles 

 L. Paesons 950 



M3S. iBtcnded for publiestion aod books, etc., iotended for 

 TCTlew ahonld b* Miit to ProfeB»or J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison- 

 on-HndaoB. N. Y. 



THE TREND AND INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN 

 PHASES OF TAXONOMTi 



"Enough is sometimes too much," says 

 the newspaper philosopher. I suspect some 

 of you are thinking right now that we have 

 already had enough systematic botany, but 

 as briefly as I can I wish to try to show you 

 that while it is true that we have already 

 had too much, it is equally true that we 

 have had too little. 



Do not feel alarmed because of the mag- 

 nitude of my subject. I shall not deal 

 with it as a whole — only certain phases of 

 it and their influence. Before attempting 

 my main message may I voice a plea for 

 the old-time systematic botany? It is of 

 course primarily the handmaid to all of the 

 other subdivisions of the science, but apart 

 from that is it not in itself a desideratum 

 of no small moment 1 



It trains the perceptive faculties, teach- 

 es orderliness, develops judgment and 

 strengthens reason. It is therefore a cul- 

 tural course of no small significance to all 

 who take it and, as some of us know, the 

 source of much pleasure to many. There 

 is a saving grace in botany not found in 

 most of the other sciences and this is exer- 

 cised through taxonomy more fully than 

 through all its other divisions combined. 

 Systematic work for its own sake is dis- 

 tinctly worth while. It develops in the 

 student or the amateur, who achieves a fair 

 measure of success, a feeling of confidence 

 in himself and gives that stimulus for 

 further mental effort that only the con- 

 quering of a definite problem affords. In 

 this respect it may be compared to mathe- 



1 Eead before the Botanical Society of America 

 at Atlanta, December 30, 1913. 



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