52 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 393. 



years ago plant pathology was practically 

 unknown in this country. Little or no at- 

 tempt had been made toward systematic 

 work in this field, and what had been ac- 

 complished was largely in the direction of 

 applying information secured as a result of 

 investigations abroad. The first attempts 

 in the study of pathological problems were 

 naturally confined to questions having to 

 do with parasites. The effects of parasitic 

 enemies of plants were pronounced and 

 gave opportunity for the most ready inves- 

 tigation. In looking back, therefore, on 

 the early development of the work, it is not 

 strange to find that investigations, for the 

 most part, were in the direction of econom- 

 ic mycology, for it was largely a study of 

 parasitic fungi in their relation to plant 

 diseases. The important problems con- 

 nected with the relation of the fungus to 

 the host and host to fungus were, for the 

 most part, overlooked. Pathology, there- 

 fore, had its inception largely in mycolog- 

 ical investigations, which later develoijed 

 into a study of the host itself. This 

 naturally led into the field of plant physi- 

 ology and developed slowly the important 

 work of investigating plant environment 

 and its relation to pathological phenom- 

 ena. It was early seen that no sharp line 

 of distinction could be drawn between any 

 of these various branches, and for this rea- 

 son it became important to push the investi- 

 gations along several different lines. To 

 the early workers in this field is due the 

 credit of laying the foundation which paved 

 the way for a full understanding of the 

 broad problems elucidated later, and as a 

 result the science itself has been established 

 on a firm basis. 



. It is the practical application of this 

 science, however, that has attracted such 

 widespread attention everywhere, especially 

 the work which has been done in this coitn- 

 try and in France. Prior to 1885 very 

 little was known in regard to the treatment 



oir plant diseases. The discovery of the 

 efficacy of certain compounds in the treat- 

 ment of crop diseases about this time led to 

 a rapid awakening of the importance of the 

 subject, and for the next few years there 

 was a phenomenal advancement in the field 

 treatment of plant maladies. Improve- 

 ments in laboratory methods also did much 

 to stimulate advanced work, and made pos- 

 sible lines of research which were not prac- 

 ticable before the discovery of such meth- 

 ods. What has been accomplished in this 

 field alone has done much to encourage ap- 

 plied work and show the importance of 

 such work as an aid to the advancement of 

 pure science. 



It has become the practice of late to ig- 

 nore the important part that systematic 

 botany has played in making known the 

 practical value of plants to the human race. 

 In the rage for special problems the fact is 

 often overlooked that many of them owe 

 their inception to prior efforts in taxonomic 

 lines. It is hardly necessary or essential to 

 go into details upon the bearing of system- 

 atic botany to applied work ; but in passing, 

 attention should be called to the great bene- 

 fit that has come to the country as a whole 

 through the important work on grasses, for- 

 estry and medicine. Some of the earliest 

 work in economic lines in this country was 

 based primarily on the systematic study of 

 grasses, the object being to determine their 

 agricultural value. The early investiga- 

 tions of Vasey did miich to call attention 

 to the value of applied botany, and there 

 has been developed from this work very 

 important and far reaching lines of re- 

 search, such as are now being carried on by 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture and 

 many of the experiment stations. This 

 work, while having for its basis systematic 

 studies, extends into broad fields of agron- 

 omy and other lines, such as have to do 

 with the improvement of pastures or range 

 lands, and many other similar lines. The 



