SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 575. 



strikes a side track or even progresses 

 backward. 



As far as botany is concerned the prog- 

 ress during the past year has not been 

 startlingly rapid, but it has been in the 

 direction of an accumulation of facts 

 rather than in the formulation of new 

 theories and the enunciation of general 

 principles, very important if true, but un- 

 fortunately not always true, as time shows. 

 If there have been no remarkable discov- 

 eries in botany during the past year, on the 

 other hand it may be said that few of the 

 steps which have been taken will need to 

 be retraced hereafter. What strikes one 

 most in a survey of the botany of the pres- 

 ent day is, I think, the fact that it is be- 

 coming more and more difficult to say just 

 what is and what is not botany. Formerly 

 all botanists were cast in pretty much the 

 same mold and, as a science, botany was 

 sharply limited except, perhaps, in the di- 

 rection of zoology. One could pass for a 

 very good botanist, although quite ignorant 

 even of the rudiments of other branches of 

 science. Now we often see in botanical 

 journals papers which might almost as well 

 have appeared in physical or chemical 

 journals and in many cases one is not at 

 liberty to form a final opinion as to the 

 value of a paper purporting to be botanical 

 until physicists or chemists, or perhaps 

 both, have also expressed their opinions in 

 regard to it. In short, the hard and fast 

 lines which formerly shut botanists up in a 

 world of their own have been broken down 

 and botany has become an inseparable part 

 of a broader science. This enlargement of 

 the botanical horizon resulting from the 

 gradual shading off of the confines of bot- 

 any into the domain of other sciences not 

 only tends to make it more attractive to 

 botanists themselves, but also serves to add 

 dignity to botany in the eyes of those who 

 are not themselves botanists. Young bot- 

 anists with a modern training may be per- 



mitted to feel confidence in entering on so 

 broad a field, but those who are no longer 

 young and whose training was that of the 

 old school, no matter how much they may 

 sympathize with modern conditions, can 

 not help feeling distrustful of their ability 

 to judge critically of work done in so many 

 new directions and by so many diverse 

 methods. Botany has, in fact, become so 

 broad a science compared with what it was 

 not many years ago that no one man can be 

 expected to be in position to judge crit- 

 ically of work done except in certain 

 branches of the subject. Consequently 

 there have been formed a number of socie- 

 ties each devoted to a special department 

 of botany and, if one wishes to know what 

 is going on in botany, one is forced to at- 

 tend the sessions of the societies affiliated 

 with the association as well as those of our 

 botanical section. It is to the presiding 

 officers of those societies and of the botan- 

 ical section that one must look for anything 

 like adequate presentations of the present 

 state of botany. The views of one man 

 are not sufficient, but he who would acquire 

 a broad view must listen to the representa- 

 tives of different branches. It seemed bet- 

 ter, therefore, that, departing from the 

 practise of my predecessors, I should not 

 attempt what can be done better by others, 

 and I have selected for my subject not the 

 present condition of botany, biit another 

 topic which ought to interest us all, viz., 

 the scientific man, what he is believed by 

 the public to be and what he really is. Do 

 not, however, suppose that I am about to 

 regale you with personalities concerning 

 my contempoi'aries. I wish merely to call 

 your attention to the estimate which the 

 public place on scientific men as a body 

 and to consider the question whether they 

 really understand the aims and needs of 

 persons like ourselves. 



You must have noticed in reading the 

 magazines and papers that a change has 



