Becembee 3, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



791 



I have tried to bring before you the pos- 

 sibilities of causal morphology partly be- 

 cause the same attention has never been 

 given to it in this country as to other 

 branches of botany, and partly because if 

 morphology be conceived in this broader 

 spirit it need not be said that it has no 

 practical bearing. I should not regard it 

 as a serious disability were the study of 

 purely scientific interest only, but this is 

 not the case. When, if ever, we penetrate 

 into the secrets of organization so far as to 

 be able to modify the organism at will (and 

 genetics has advanced in this direction), 

 the practical possibilities become incal- 

 culable. 



Probably all of us have reflected on what 

 changes the war may bring to botanical 

 work. It is impossible to forecast this, but 

 I should like to emphasize what my pre- 

 decessor said in his address last year as to 

 pure science being the root from which ap- 

 plied science must spring. Though results 

 may seem far off, we must not slacken, but 

 redouble our efforts towards the solution of 

 the fundamental problems of the organism. 

 This can be done without any antagonism 

 between pure and applied botany; indeed, 

 there is every advantage in conducting in- 

 vestigations on plants of economic impor- 

 tance. It would be well if every botanist 

 made himself really familiar with some 

 limited portion of applied botany, so as to 

 be able to give useful assistance and advice 

 at need. The stimulus to investigation 

 would amply repay the time required. 

 Even in continuing to devote ourselves to 

 pure botany we can not afford to waste time 

 and energy in purposeless work. It is 

 written in "Alice in "Wonderland" that 

 "no wise fish goes anywhere without a por- 

 poise," and this might hang as a text in 

 every research laboratory. 



A plant is a very mysterious and wonder- 

 ful thing, and our business as botanists is 



to try to understand and explain it as a 

 whole and to avoid being bound by any 

 conventional views of the moment. "We 

 have to think of the plant as at once a 

 physico-chemical mechanism and as a living 

 being; to avoid either treating it as some- 

 thing essentially different from non-living 

 matter or forcibly explaining it by the 

 physics and chemistry of to-day. It is an 

 advantage of the study of causal morphol- 

 ogy that it requires us to keep the line be- 

 tween these two crudities, a line that may 

 some day lead us to a causal explanation 

 of the developing plant and the beginnings 

 of a single science of botany. 



"W. H. Lang 

 University of Manchester 



WHICH OF THE PBESENT MEMBEES OF 



THE AUEBICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE HAVE 



HELD THE LONGEST CONTINV- 



OUS MEMBERSHIP? 



This is a question which often comes up at 

 the meetings and several of the old-time mem- 

 bers occasionally claim to be the oldest living 

 member. 



Mr. F. S. Hazard, the assistant secretary of 

 the association, in going over the list of mem- 

 bers, has drawn up the following statement 

 concerning the members now living: 

 *Hilgard, Eugene Woldemar, Ph.D., LL.D., Uni- 

 versity of California, Berkeley, Calif. (11.) 



1874. B, C, E. 

 *WUrteIe, Bev. Louis Campbell, P. 0. Drawer E, 



Acton Vale, Quebec, Canada. (11.) 1875. 



E, H. 

 *Paine, Cyrus Fay, 520 East Avenue, Eoehester, 



N. T. (12.) 1874. A, B. 

 *Fairbanks, Eev. Henry, Pli.D., St. Johnsbury, Vt. 



(14.) 1874. A, B, D. 

 *Wright, Arthur Williams, Ph.B., Yale Univer- 

 sity, New Haven, Conn. (14.) 1874. A, B. 

 *Eaymond, Eossiter W., Ph.D., LL.D., 29 West 



39th St., New York, N. Y. (15.) 1875. B, C, 



D, E, I, K. 

 *Abbe, Cleveland, Ph.D., LL.D., U. S. Weather 



Bureau, Washington, D. C. (16.) 1874. A, B. 

 *Beal, William James, Ph.D., Sc.D., 40 Sunset 



Avenue, Amherst, Mass. (17.) 1880. G. 



