522 BOTANICAL OPPORTUNITY. 



exists to secure equipment for the broadest possible series of elec- 

 tives, and it is too often yielded to for tlie best interests of the insti- 

 tution. However liberal one may be in the matter of electives, it is 

 evident, in most instances, that the student can not afford to devote 

 more than about one-half of his undergraduate time to a single study 

 like botany, and in this time he can cover only a definite amount of 

 ground. While there is a certain seductiveness in tlie perusal of long- 

 lists of electives in a college catalogue, the serious contemplation of 

 them shows that few, if any, students can hope to take all of the 

 courses of such a list, and as, for the most part, they are garnished out 

 in an attractive form, there is likely to be embarrassment in the wealth 

 of subjects, so that, if left to himself, the student is very likely to 

 select a series of disconnected but pleasing fragments, rather than the 

 proper links in an educational chain. Exj)erience shows the wisdom 

 of limiting the list of electives to those that there is reasonable proba- 

 bility that the student can take, and of making the list a consistent 

 whole, fairly opening up the entire field of botany in such a manner as 

 to pave the way for a piece of advanced thesis work at the end, and for 

 specialization after graduation. So far as undergraduate instruction 

 is concerned, where, as is usually the case, funds are limited, it is here 

 desirable, as in the other instance, to limit the scope of the depart- 

 mental equipment quite closely to the requirements of the courses 

 offered. As the senior thesis work is almost certain to be a farther 

 study of some one of the subjects already elected, the provision for it, 

 in nearly every instance, is easily and quickly effected by a compara- 

 tively inexpensive addition, in each case, to the standard library and 

 laboratory equipment. Such research work as the head of the depart 

 ment and his assistants find time for, as well as such post-graduate 

 work as may be undertaken, can then be provided for in the same man- 

 ner, jneco by piece, with the exception of the final touches, demanding 

 the use of the largest reference libraries or collections, the provision 

 for which is not likely to be far to seek in the stronger research 

 centers within a very few years. 



Great herbaria, broad reference libraries, and large stores of apjja- 

 ratus and living or preserved material, are possible only to few universi- 

 ties and to the still fewer institutions specially endowed for research, 

 to which alone, indeed, they seem strictly appropriate. For the latter, 

 every shade of breadth of foundation is possible, from the laboratory 

 and library limited to the narrowest specialty, to the institution 

 founded and equijiped for research in any branch of pure or applied 

 botany. Fairly perfect equipment of the former class it is possible to 

 find here and there, to-day, but though the seed is sown in several 

 places, the broadest institutions, in their entirety, are still to be 

 developed. 



No doubt the first requisite in any such institution is a library of 

 scope comparable with its own. Whatever may be said against the 

 prevalent nomenclature discussions, it must be admitted that they are 



