SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 



graduate student seeking the best should 

 look for leadership in more than one insti- 

 tution. 



Most of us can recall the time when 

 American graduate students in botany were 

 turning to Europe for their higher train- 

 ing. To-day, we have the satisfaction of 

 realizing that this is not necessary. In our 

 American universities we now have the lab- 

 oratory equipment, the libraries and a 

 share of the personal leadership. Those 

 qualified to compare testify that our stand- 

 ards are at least in as high a class as those 

 of the European universities. Without 

 going into familiar details, I wish at once 

 to point out, however, that the most strik- 

 ing difference and defect in our American 

 training, as compared with the German, is 

 that it involves relatively less migration of 

 our graduate students from university to 

 university. All must at once admit this 

 fact and all must lament it as unfortunate. 



If this is so, we should earnestly ask why 

 it is so and how is it to be remedied. There 

 is neither time nor necessity for full analy- 

 sis of the reasons for its existence. A par- 

 tial list will suffice : 



1. The geographical isolation of our bo- 

 tanical centers. 



2. The lack of more definite recognition 

 of the importance of institutional speciali- 

 zation. 



3. Institutional loyalty or "college 

 spirit" with its relative magnification of 

 institutional prominence, rather than Indi- 

 vidual leadership. 



i. The financial handicap of many a 

 graduate student and, consequently, the at- 

 tractiveness of the local financial induce- 

 ments, scholarships, fellowships and assist- 

 antships, which, naturally, are offered to 

 our own best students. This has been em- 

 phasized in recent years by the rapid insti- 

 tutional growth coupled with the great de- 

 velopment of laboratory courses, which 



combine in demanding a large number of 

 low-priced assistants. 



5. The reluctance which every depart- 

 mental head, of normal human constitution, 

 feels at sending his best men to another in- 

 stitution before the completion of their 

 graduate period. 



6. The natural inertia on the part of im- 

 mature students, which results from the 

 American custom of staying by one institu- 

 tion : A stays because B and C stay, and 

 they because D did the year before. 



7. The fact that our graduate schools are 

 not always so organized and managed as to 

 make such a migration easy, simple and 

 natural. The student can readily find out 

 how he can get in as a beginner, but it is 

 not so easy to learn what will be his status 

 if he transfers. 



If I have listed the more important rea- 

 sons for lack of migration among our grad- 

 uate students, then analysis of them shows 

 clearly that the fault lies primarily, not 

 with our students, but with our institu- 

 tional and departmental directors — with 

 ourselves as teachers. 



To correct this we should do three 

 things : 



1. Prepare to welcome and provide for 

 the transient student, the man who comes 

 for one year or even one semester's work, 

 with the same definiteness and the same 

 departmental hospitality that we do for the 

 man who is to stay two or three years. 



2. Examine the administrative machin- 

 ery and see that it is so designed, adjusted 

 and lubricated as to make migration easy; 

 that it is convenient for the doors to be 

 swung both ways; that the able but tran- 

 sient student is admitted promptly and his 

 work properly certified when he leaves; 

 that attainments at other institutions are 

 recognized at their full face value. 



3. Finally, and hardest, remember that 

 until the precedents are established and the 



