SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. i 



omit, of course, public teaching or exten- 

 sion service as not concerning the higher 

 aspects of the problem. 



Directing our attention, then, to these 

 two main lines of phytopathological activ- 

 ity — the effective prosecution of the higher 

 lines of research and the best professional 

 training of graduate students — the fact is 

 becoming increasingly clear that in both 

 lines it is of paramount importance to rec- 

 ognize that the complex interrelations with 

 other departments of botanical and allied 

 sciences are each year becoming more intri- 

 cate and vital, and the need of deliberate 

 correlation of endeavor is, therefore, be- 

 coming more imperative. Neither in re- 

 search nor in graduate training can any 

 man live by himself or to himself alone. 



Many of us, in phytopathology at least, 

 have been undergoing a transition in rela- 

 tions without perhaps fully realizing its 

 significance. We shaped out individual or 

 institutional ideals with reference to the 

 purely local aspect of research problems or 

 to the educational needs of the student of 

 the more generalized type. This has meant 

 that in the one department of one institu- 

 tion, and perhaps under the leadership of 

 one man, the student has been introduced 

 to the various aspects of botanical science, 

 and work upon problems of widely different 

 types has been undertaken. The futility of 

 this having become evident with our higher 

 aims and the increasing complexity of our 

 modern scientific development, we have 

 naturally substituted the university as the 

 unit instead of the man or the department. 



This seems to-day to be the dominant 

 ideal in American university adlninistra- 

 tion and departmental organization. "We 

 wish to make each great university com- 

 plete in all its parts and wholly sufficient 

 unto itself. At least if we are not doing so 

 positively, we are negatively, by not clearly 

 defining any higher or better ideal. 



As a matter of fact, however, we have ar- 

 rived at the stage where the highest effi- 

 ciency and economy in research and the 

 best training for graduate men alike de- 

 mand the clear recognition of the impor- 

 ,tance of specialization, with correlation and 

 cooperation, not only as between men and 

 ^departments, but as between institutions.^ 

 No one man can be the best leader in all 

 lines. No one laboratory has the best equip- 

 ment for all purposes. No one library or 

 herbarium is likely to be kept at the highest 

 stage of working efficiency for all botanical 

 problems. No one locality offers the natural 

 or artificial environment best suited to meet 

 all of the diverse needs of a single prob- 

 lem. It is, therefore, both extravagant and 

 futile to encourage the ideal of university 

 completeness. 



For example, take the botanical gardens 

 in America. All are, of course, agreed as 

 to the usefulness of the moderate-sized 

 garden for general college uses, or of the 

 small but highly specialized garden for in- 

 dividual researches. But I think every 

 one recognizes the tremendous cost, both in 

 money and in executive skill, which is re- 

 quired to organize and develop the large 

 botanical garden, planned and maintained 

 as a general research center. I doubt not 

 that most will agree, therefore, that it is 

 better for botanical research in America to 

 have the botanical gardens at Bronx Park 

 and St. Louis equipped and kept at the 

 highest possible degree of effieiencv, sus- 

 tained by the scientific recognition and 

 moral support of the neighboring universi- 

 ties, rather than to encourage the ideal of 

 an extensive botanical garden at every 

 university. 



^ The need of better correlation in botanical 

 work was also strongly urged by Dr. C. E. Bessey 

 in his presidential address at the Cleveland meet- 

 ing of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. See page 11 of the current 

 volume of Science. 



