SCIENCE 



Friday, March 10, 1916 



CONTENTS 



The Scope and Relations of Taxonomic Bot- 

 any : Dr. a. S. Hitchcock 331 



The Centigrade Thermometer 342 



Summer "Assembly in Science'' at the Scripps 

 Institution 343 



The Closing of British Museums 344 



Scientific Notes and Neios 34 



University and Educational News 347 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Crown Gall of Plants and Cancer: De. 

 Erwin F. Smith. The Rise of Sea Level 

 shown by Coastal Dunes: S. Sanford. A 

 Reputed Specific for Blaclcwater Fever: Dr. 

 Caelotta Joaquina Mauet. University 

 Registration Statistics : John C. Bukg .... 348 



Quotations: — 

 Science on the War Path 350 



Scientific BooTcs:— 

 Ziehen's Psychologic: Peofessoe Howaed 

 C. Waseen. Case on the Fermo-Carbonifer- 

 ous Red Beds of North America: Dk. F. B. 

 LooMis 352 



Special Articles: — 

 An Electric Counter for Determining the 

 Rate of a Free-swinging Pendulum: Feed- 

 ERicK W. Ellis 354 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 

 Section M — Agriculture : De. E. W. Allen. 356 



The American Society of Naturalists: Dk. 

 Beadley M. Davis 358 



The American Psychological Association: Dr. 

 R. M. Ogden 359 



The Botanical Society of America: Dr. H. H. 

 Baetlett 360 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to Professor J. McEeen Cattell, Garrison- 

 OB-Hudsan. N. Y. 



THE SCOPE AND RELATIONS OF 

 TAXONOMIC BOTANY' 



In his famous work, "Philosophia Bo- 

 tanica, " Linnfflus, in accord with his fond- 

 ness for system in all things, classifies the 

 authors that have dealt with botany and 

 allied subjects. He first divides botanical 

 writers into two groups, true botanists, 

 and botanophils or lovers of botany. The 

 botanists are again divided and subdivided 

 with much detail into numerous groups. 

 The botanophils consist of four groups, the 

 anatomists, the gardeners, the writers upon 

 medicine, and lastly a miscellaneous group 

 including those who write upon plants 

 from the standpoint of economics, pane- 

 gyrics, theology or poetry. It is clear 

 from this classification that among those 

 who concerned themselves with plants the 

 systematic botanists held the dominating 

 position. They were the real botanists, 

 the others were only botanophils. Among 

 the latter were the few anatomists and 

 physiologists such as Malpighi, Grew and 

 Hales. It is true that Linnsus has, as a 

 subdivision under the true botanists, the 

 heading physiologists, but he defines these 

 as those who reveal the laws of vegetable 

 growth and the mystery of sex in plants. 

 This disposition of the physiologists was no 

 doubt influenced by Linnseus's own inter- 

 est in sexuality in plants. In this connec- 

 tion it should be noted that the great classi- 

 fier places Hales, the physiologist, among 

 the botanophils and not among the botan- 

 ists. For a century more the botanical 



1 Address of the retiring president of the Bo- 

 tanical Society of America, Columbus, December 

 29, 1915. 



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