Mat 25, 1806.] 



SCIENCE. 



809 



possibility of indicating any given plant 

 so that other botanists may certainly recog- 

 nize it. If I apply a name to a certain 

 plant and my friend applies the same name 

 to a quite different thing, one of us has 

 perpetrated an untruth— and when we con- 

 sider that a large part of American botan- 

 ical literature is based upon one gigantic 

 fabric of such untruths, the seriousness of 

 the present situation may be appreciated. 

 There has been so much undignified and 

 unscientific haste to rush out 'new species' 

 and gain priority, that good work has been 

 impossible. A friend of mine calls any 

 field results in the way of specimens a 

 'grab'— and this name illustrates exactly 

 the character of most of the field work 

 being done in America to-day— 'grabbing. ' 

 Most collectors are satisfied with a single 

 number to represent what they, in this 

 rapid and very superficial glance, seem to 

 recognize as distinct species. They have 

 not yet learned that they can do more for 

 American botany by concentrated and lo- 

 calized work than by diffuse 'grabbing,' 

 over great regions in the space of a single 

 season. So, of the larger part of the 

 United States we may very truthfully say 

 that the surface has been barely scratched. 

 It does not seem possible that any proper 

 work could be done except by actual resi- 

 dence throughout the season in the single 

 limited region to be investigated. I have 

 found in the west that if a home camp be 

 established in some favorable "spot, one will 

 have all that can possibly be attended to by 

 one person during a single season within a 

 day's tramping distance of the camp. 

 From such a limited area I have brought 

 away 25,000 to 50,000 sheets of specimens 

 within three months, and even then knew 

 full well that but a fair preliminary survey 

 had been made, and that during a second 

 season I could take as many more of the 

 host of interesting varieties and extreme 

 rarities, and only then get near a possible 



interpretation of the flora as a whole. But 

 here the single-specimen men usually step 

 in and forbid me— and I am compelled to 

 do as necessity dictates instead of what I 

 know to be for the best interests of Amer- 

 ican botany. 



I have never yet had the pleasure of see- 

 ing an herbarium with a single species 

 fairly represented even from the home lo- 

 cality. There may be many specimens, but 

 from widely separated points. These will, 

 of course, show certain variations, on which 

 grave studies of geographical distribution 

 and taxonomy are often based, and all this 

 when often in single spots a few feet square 

 in the home locality, still wider variations 

 might be discovered by the right kind of 

 critical field work. In the herbarium we 

 haggle over the difference of a few hairs— 

 which must certainly indicate a necessity 

 for more work on the hands and knees in 

 the field. We must learn to sit down 

 among the plants and patiently study them 

 right where they grow, and we shall never 

 have a systematic botany worthy of the 

 name .until we do. It may be safely said 

 that when this method of work is generally 

 adopted we shall all see the urgent neces- 

 sity for a hundred herbarium specimens 

 where one is considered sufficient now. 

 Also, the time will surely come when an 

 herbarium that is no more than a hortus 

 siccus will be unreservedly condemned as 

 an efficient aid to the best or the safest 

 work. Such an herbarium belongs to the 

 time of Linnaeus. Wet specimens for dis- 

 sections, drawings and histological work 

 must be prepared at the same time, from 

 the same living plants, and under these 

 same field numbers. Likewise seeds and 

 woods should be collected and carefully 

 associated under the same numbers. If this 

 can not be done, then it would be far better 

 for botany as a whole, if all plants were 

 left in the field and studied only there. 

 What a wonderful thing work in an her- 



