12 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 470. 



ago the total amount expended for work of 

 this kind did not reach $25,000 annually. 

 The present year the honorable secretary's 

 estimates for the work will aggregate about 

 $400,000 ; and if the allied lines of investi- 

 gation in which botany and botanical sci- 

 ence play an important part are considered, 

 the funds devoted to the work will exceed 

 half a million dollars. This amount, it 

 must be borne in mind, is an annual ex- 

 penditure and practically represents an 

 endowment on a three-per-cent. basis of 

 over fifteen million dollars. This is for 

 investigations and experiments alone, as 

 purely educational subjects are considered 

 only in an indirect way. That the people, 

 or the state, are not averse to responding to 

 the needs of botany from the educational 

 point of view is manifested in the remark- 

 able development of the work in a number 

 of our important universities and in the 

 growth of educational institutions, a type 

 of which is found in the New York Botan- 

 ical Garden. Here, through the energy of 

 a corps of earnest workers, the educational 

 value of botany has been recognized and 

 generous support has been secured for the 

 development of gardens, museums and 

 laboratories. These results, however, I im- 

 agine, would not have been attained with- 

 out appealing to the utilitarian ends in 

 view. The practical value of such an in- 

 stitution to the community and to the coun- 

 try has been presented in the proper way, 

 and the necessary support was forthcoming. 

 The argument, therefore, in all this is 

 that for the future development of botany 

 and botanical work we must make up our 

 minds to two important things ; first, the 

 presentation of our wants to those upon 

 whom we must depend for support, in such 

 a way that the ultimate practical value of 

 what we desire to do will be seen; second, 

 the thorough discharge of our duties to the 

 end of showing that the trust imposed on 

 us has been fully and honestly respected. 



I may be preaching an heretical doctrine 

 and be criticized on the ground that science 

 has nothing to do with such material things 

 and will take care of itself if kept pure and 

 undefiled. This may be true, but I have 

 long since reached the opinion that the doc- 

 trine of science for science's sake may be 

 beautiful in theory, but faulty in practice. 

 Some one has said that pure science and 

 science applied are like abstract and prac- 

 tical Christianity, both beautiful, but one 

 is for gods and the other for men. 



It is men that we are to deal with in the 

 future— keen, practical, analytical men, 

 and they want and should know the why 

 and the wherefore of what they are asked 

 to support. It is recognized that there are 

 but few men who have the gift of present- 

 ing what is frequently an abstruse problem 

 in such a way as to gain material support. 

 There ought to be more such men, and as 

 the needs of the work develop, doubtless 

 there will be more. From the tendency of 

 the times the fact becomes evident that 

 more and more the pursuit of science must 

 be looked upon in a business-like way. 

 Therefore, future aid for this work, be it 

 in botanical or other lines, must come by 

 going after it in the proper manner. In 

 other words, the scientific man can not 

 afford to wrap about himself a mantle of 

 false dignity and assume that because his 

 work is scientific he is debarred from seek- 

 ing aid where aid is needed. What we 

 shall expect to see, therefore, in the future 

 is a manifestation of that spirit of progress 

 which recognizes that science must seek its 

 own interests and not wait to be sought. 



Science, and I mean, of course, in the 

 main, botanical science, can not and will 

 not suffer by this attitude. I do not mean 

 that the spirit of commercialism, of barter 

 and trade, will enter into the matter. This 

 is an extreme which will be avoided, as well 

 as that other which comes with it, the idea 

 that the responsible head of scientific work 



