316 
THE PROGRESS AND PROBLEMS OF PLANT 
PHYSIOLOGY.* 
_ THERE are some subjects of whose con- 
tent and extent most educated people have 
fairly accurate conceptions, though they 
may not appreciate the significance of the 
numerous problems which those who carry 
forward research are attacking. Literature 
and history number their appreciative ama- 
teurs by thousands. Even such sciences 
as astronomy and chemistry receive a fair 
measure of popular approbation and are 
widely appreciated. 
Unhappily this is not yet the case with 
botany. By even the limited number who 
think they know of what it treats, it is fre- 
quently misunderstood and consequently 
undervalued. To most mature people it is 
hardly more than a name for a dilettantish 
dissecting of flowers, for which an appren- 
ticeship of memorizing troublesome tech- 
nical terms must needs be served. 
It is easy to discover why thisis so. It 
has resulted from the mistaken ways of 
presenting the subject to elementary pupils. 
But the difficulty of correcting the misap- 
prehension is not decreased by a knowledge 
of the way in which it has arisen. We can 
only rely upon the gradual substitution of 
better ideas in the newer generation by 
means of more adequate instruction, and 
on the occasional popular presentation of 
more accurate information. For the former 
we may look to the schools, which are 
rapidly changing the scope of their teach- 
ings. The latter, however, should be un- 
dertaken by specialists, as a matter both of 
duty and of privilege. Popular accounts of 
plant phenomena may be accurate without 
being dull, interesting without being sensa- 
tional, and attractive without being senti- 
mental. But we can expect these. charac- 
teristics only in properly qualified writers 
* Address of the Vice-President and Chairman of 
Section G, Botany, of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, Columbus, August 21, 1899. 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. X. No. 245. 
whose scientific training has been sufficient 
to kindle their enthusiasms and quicken 
their energies—without spoiling their Eng- 
lish. Such books, in considerable number, 
have been appearing lately from American 
writers. May their tribe increase! As 
books of this kind are multiplied we may 
hope for an increasing appreciation of the 
science of botany both educationally and 
economically. 
When the general subject has been so 
misapprehended, what can be expected re- 
garding one division of it? The experi- 
mental study of the physiology of plants is 
not new. Hales more than a century ago 
carried out such accurate experiments that 
they are quoted to-day. But even to fairly- 
educated people the word physiology, con- 
joined with plant, conveys no definite 
idea. ‘Physiology’ we studied at school ; 
is it not that hybrid of human anatomy 
and hygiene, with barely enough real 
physiology to salt it, which is inflicted 
upon immature youngsters, to the ac- 
companiment of lurid lithographs of an 
inebriate’s stomach? But what can ‘ phys- 
iology’ have to do with plants that have 
no teeth to decay, stomachs to ulcerate, or 
eyes to become myopic? And so it comes 
about that one must explain to the average 
man that plants are really alive, that they 
work and rest, that they are sensitive to 
what goes on around them, and that they 
have established relations with their plant 
and animal neighbors. How they do these 
things and how their activities underlie 
those of all other living beings, even man’s, 
lies within the compass of this branch of 
the science of botany. 
But to such a company as this it is not 
necessary to set forth in detail the prov- 
ince of plant physiology or to justify its 
rapid introduction into institutions of higher 
learning. While Czesalpino and the school- 
men argued vainly about the location of 
the ‘soul’ of plants, it was the growing 
