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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 480. 



friction and jealousy whicli detract so much, 

 from the pleasure and profit of these annual 

 meetings. One who would like to attend two 

 meetings occurring at the same hour is not 

 in the best humor, and is pretty likely to think 

 that somebody blundered, or that some so- 

 ciety is crowding out his society. If I find 

 that A has a meeting set at the same time as 

 B, taking away some members of the latter, 

 I quite naturally blame the A's for doing so, 

 and no doubt the A's blame the B's in return. 

 It may be an almost impossible task to ar- 

 range a program so as to avoid such inter- 

 ferences, but without question much can be 

 done to lessen their frequency. I think I 

 know the botanists of the country well enough 

 to be able to say confidently that if a program 

 were made so as to allow time for each asso- 

 ciation, society and club, we should be a veri- 

 table ' happy family.' As it is, there is a re- 

 markably good feeling among American bot- 

 anists, although some of us think that there 

 is something yet to be desired. It is not 

 enough, in these days of compact organization 

 in all other lines of human effort, that scien- 

 tific men should be on good terms with one 

 another. They may do their individual pieces 

 of work almost as well, perhaps. But this is 

 not sufficient; scientific men should present 

 a united front; they should be like a well- 

 organized army, and not as isolated guerrillas. 

 We should ' get together ' ourselves, into some- 

 what compact societies or clubs (not too 

 many), and then ask the council or its com- 

 mittee to make such a program as will pre- 

 vent interference in times of meetings. 



The council should be the central organ- 

 izing body. Its membership should include 

 at least the secretaries of all sections and 

 afiiliated societies, in order that the programs 

 of these organizations may be considered in 

 making up the general program. The council 

 should meet for several sessions for general 

 as well as routine business, one day before 

 the public meetings begin. It should have at 

 least one session after the close of the asso- 

 ciation meetings. Do away with council ses- 

 sions during the public meetings of the asso- 

 ciation. Dispense with the formality of re- 



ferring council action to the general session 

 of the association for ratification. 



Now use the evenings for general sessions, 

 in which popular papers and addresses suit- 

 able for a general audience are presented. 

 These papers should be short, not esceeding 

 twenty or thirty minutes. Each section might 

 be requested to furnish one such paper or 

 address. Here the lantern might be used to 

 great advantage. By such general sessions 

 the chemists might be able to absorb a little 

 botany, and the botanists a little chemistry, 

 from masters of the subjects. The non-scien- 

 tific portion of the audience would be bene- 

 fited and instructed by listening to authorita- 

 tive and yet non-technical accounts of certain 

 scientific facts and theories. 



With the council meetings and the general 

 sessions out of the way the whole of every 

 forenoon could be given to the meetings of 

 the affiliated societies, and the afternoons to 

 the section meetings. Here I should like to 

 suggest that the chairmen of the sections 

 should be elected two or three years before 

 they are to preside, and that the place of 

 meeting should be decided upon as long in 

 advance. We now choose our section secre- 

 taries for periods of five years. The earlier 

 election of chairmen would enable the officers 

 to work out better programs. 



In the making of section programs the 

 chairman and secretary should appoint cer- 

 tain men to prepare papers or addresses. 

 They should invite others to do so. This 

 should be done a year or so in advance, in 

 order that time may be given for the work. 

 Then the sectional committee should select 

 from the papers or full abstracts, at least 

 two months before the meeting, only as many 

 more papers as may be adequately presented 

 in the allotted time. I like the rule of the 

 London omnibuses which refuse to take more 

 passengers than can be given places better 

 than that which allows an indefinite number 

 to crowd in and fight for even standing room. 

 At St. Louis some of the best botanical papers 

 were crowded out by others which were of 

 little value. I can not refrain from saying 

 again what I have said on more than one 

 occasion before this, that while every man 



