BOTANICAL OPPORTUNITY. , 527 



well before increasiog the force of salaried men mucli beyond what is 

 needed for the care and arrangement of the material accumulating. 

 This principle, if followed out, almost forces an overdevelopment in 

 the branches of special interest to the earlier employees — a departure 

 from the ideal symmetry which is sure to be justified by the perform- 

 ance of more work in these hypertrophied specialties, with reference to 

 the sum invested, than in other directions. From this may also be 

 drawn the seemingly just inference that where the means are limited, 

 it is-far better to concentrate the entire equipment on the specialties of 

 the persons who can use it than to allow them to work at a disadvant- 

 age through an effort, however commendable it may at first appear, to 

 secure a symmetrical equipment. 



With the evolution of centers of pure research will appear new prob- 

 lems. Just as the attendance of a large number of students in the 

 botanical department of a college has heretofore been found to justify 

 the acquisition of facilities beyond the power of their immediate use, 

 it will be found that where research institutions exist, in close con- 

 nection with a university of recognized standing, their equipment 

 will be utilized more or less fully in postgraduate work done toward 

 the acquisition of the doctor's degree, so that, like the undergraduate 

 equipment, it will be more or less satisfactorily accounted for by the 

 number of candidates for such degree; but with broadly grounded 

 and well endowed research institutions not so situated, it is inevitable 

 that as they take permanent form on the lines calculated to make them 

 available for advanced research in any line of botany, the^^ will sooner 

 or later come to represent a very large sum of invested money, of 

 which only a part is usefully employed at any given time, the remainder 

 being held as a necessary but temporarily unproductive re.-erve. The 

 same thing is seen, to a certain extent, in all large libraries and muse- 

 ums; but, unlike the general library, of interest to the entire reading 

 public, or the collection of historical or political works, referred to by 

 many people of ordinary intellectual attainments, the advanced equip- 

 ment in botany, for the most part, is useful and interesting only to 

 botanists, so that, while it may possess a passing interest for the gen- 

 eral student, its serious use is limited to a very restricted class. How 

 to increase this use to the maximum may well demand our best thought. 



No doubt, just as many colleges now offer scholarships, making their 

 advantages available to men who otherwise could not enjoy them, and 

 some of our universities offer fellowships, opening their own post grad- 

 uate courses or those of foreign universities to deserving students, the 

 evolution of research institutions will witness some such provisions for 

 enablmg students who have partially completed pieces of research work 

 to visit and utilize these centers without encroaching too far on the 

 limited savings from the small salaries which, as a rule, are drawn by 

 the botanists of the country. After all, however, the great opportunity 

 of attainment for such institutions, whether or not connected with col- 

 leges or universities, lies in the performance of research work by their 



