Januaby 31, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



177 



m America to adopt this advanced position. 

 He thus set in motion at this college influ- 

 ences of the greatest importance to the 

 progress of botanical science, which, cen- 

 tering here, later extended to far-away 

 Japan, where such views had not then be- 

 come known, to various parts of the United 

 States and eventually to Canada. It is a 

 matter of no small moment, and one upon 

 which this institution may well be con- 

 gratulated, that it was one of the pioneers 

 in giving to the new world correct concep- 

 tions of the principles of the new school of 

 botany, in accordance with which it has 

 been possible to realize the great scientific 

 and economic achievements of the last 

 quarter of a century within the domain of 

 that science. 



President Clark's claim to scientific 

 recognition rests not so much upon his 

 actual achievements in research as upon 

 kis administrative capacity and the intel- 

 ligent manner in which he stimulated and 

 encouraged investigation on the part of 

 ethers. As a matter of fact, his only ex- 

 ploit in original botanical work is recorded 

 in the report entitled "The Phenomena of 

 Plant Life." In this paper he undertook 

 to present the results derived from a repeti- 

 tion of Hales 's classic experiments, but 

 with greatly improved apparatus of his 

 own devising. This work extended over a 

 period of three years and dealt with a 

 variety of phenomena of great popular in- 

 terest and much scientific importance. But 

 the portion which claims our special atten- 

 tion is that relating to the movement of 

 sap in trees. To this obscure problem 

 which had claimed the attention of botan- 

 ists, and had been the subject of more or 

 less profound investigation for three hun- 

 dred years, he contributed new facts of 

 great value. Although the subject has, of 

 late, received renewed attention, and the 

 resources of greatly improved methods and 

 apparatus have been utilized, the results 



obtained here in 1874-76 remain unchal- 

 lenged. Indeed, they afford some of the 

 most reliable data obtainable, and one of 

 the best explanations of the phenomena 

 within the limits of the ground covered. 

 No discussion of the subject can be entered 

 upon without reference to this important 

 work. I desire to emphasize this fact, not 

 only becaiase it indicates the great scientific 

 value of the problems which President 

 Clark was prepared to enter upon, as well 

 as his capacity for their solution, but it 

 serves to make clear his connection with 

 another movement of great significance and 

 far-reaching importance. But before leav- 

 ing this aspect of our subject, one other 

 item must be added to the scientific work 

 thus indicated, as represented by his suc- 

 cessful efforts with respect to the introduc- 

 tion of new or little-known species of Jap- 

 anese plants. The collections at this col- 

 lege afford abundant evidence of the zeal 

 with which this work was carried out, and 

 the success which attended his efforts. 



In 1834 John Bennett Lawes, afterwards 

 Sir John, established at Rothamsted, Eng- 

 land, a special station for the investigation 

 of problems relating to the nutrition of 

 plants. This work was suggested by the 

 celebrated investigations of De Saussure, 

 and for a period of nine years it was car- 

 ried on in a tentative way. But in 1843 

 it was entered upon on an enlarged scale 

 with improved facilities; and through the 

 cooperation of Dr., afterwards Sir, Henry 

 J. Gilbert the work was carried out on the 

 original lines until the death of the latter 

 brought it under the management of a 

 special trust devised by Sir John Lawes 

 some time before his death. The subse- 

 quent establishment of a system of experi- 

 ment stations throughout Germany, but 

 under government control, gave this move- 

 ment a powerful impulse which eventually 

 brought it across the Atlantic to our own 

 shores. The example thus set made a deep 



