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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 4(i8. 



effective and free to be applied as the needs 

 of scientific research develop, it would seem 

 wise to stimulate every worthy enterprise 

 to self-support as rapidly as possible, and 

 to help it no longer than it needs help to 

 be effective. I am sure that a good deal 

 that is undertaken can be gradually un- 

 loaded upon universities, state and national 

 governments, or even upon other jDrivate 

 endowments, leaving the Carnegie fund 

 free to turn to the new fields that need 

 cultivation. 



In my own mind there are at least three 

 categories in which the needs of increased 

 opportunities for scientific research may 

 fall, and these suggest methods of supple- 

 menting the opportunities offered by ex- 

 isting establishments. Other departments 

 of work may have different needs, but I 

 am speaking under the pressure of the 

 needs of my own subject. 



1. There are competent investigators, 

 whose ability is well known, who need in 

 the main more leisure for work, and in 

 some cases perhaps more equipment. Any- 

 thing that will meet this need is sure of 

 results. Just how these investigators can 

 be selected, and how their needs may be 

 met without any relaxation of effort on the 

 part of the institutions to which they be- 

 long are matters of detail. From such men 

 no outline of work or promise of results 

 can be exacted, for it is the unexpected 

 that often leads to their most important 

 discoveries. Perhaps in this same general 

 category may be placed the needs of those 

 who give promise of becoming competent 

 investigators, but to whom lack of means 

 has denied the opportunity for advanced 

 training. This opens up the whole ques- 

 tion of fellowships, and it may be urged 

 that this is the business of the universities. 

 It is a notorious fact, however, that not 

 one-fourth of the promising candidates 

 that apply for fellowships can obtain them. 



2. There are well-defined general prob- 



lems that need a corps of investigators to 

 collect data, which no existing institution 

 is likely to provide for. Speaking in the 

 largest sense, competent and prolonged 

 biological surveys of various kinds, over 

 various areas, are sadly needed to reduce 

 our loose empirical statements to definite 

 statements of facts. Such work can be 

 definitely outlined in scope and purpose, 

 and the results are assured. 



3. Students of botany have no greater 

 need at present than a good station in the 

 American tropics, where tropical material 

 and conditions are available. The highest 

 and most varied expression of plant life is 

 found in the rainy tropics, and the labora- 

 tories of temperate regions are only on the 

 border-land of their subject. To establish 

 such a laboratory and to make it possible 

 in the way of transportation for competent 

 investigators to visit it when their prob- 

 lems demand would be one of the greatest 

 opportunities that could be offered to 

 American botany. The important results 

 that have been obtained in the Dutch sta- 

 tion at Buitenzorg, Java, visited by com- 

 paratively few investigators, prove what 

 an American station, near at hand and in- 

 expensive to reach, would do for botany. 

 It is probable that in the establishment 

 of government stations in the tropics for 

 practical purposes such cooperation could 

 be arranged that the only need would be 

 a modest equipment and reduced transpor- 

 tation. 



Even if such a general outline were 

 adopted, the most effective selection and 

 methods would have to be discovered 

 through trial. 



Of course, in all sciences facilities for 

 starting new work would be desirable, but 

 the greatest present need in botany is to 

 make it possible to do in a better way and 

 upon a larger scale what we already have 

 in hand. John M. Coulter. 



Hull Botanical Laboeatoet, 

 The University of Chicago. 



