528 BOTANICAL OPPORTUNITY. 



own employees, and while, except in a few instances already referred 

 to, and notably in the national Department of Agriculture, to-day there 

 is some hesitancy in recognizing the employment of a staff of investi- 

 gators as a legitimate part of the maintenance expense of an establish- 

 ment which does not use a large part of their time in instruction or 

 necessary curator's routine, it is quite certain that within a very few 

 years opinion will have so changed that a considerable number of sala- 

 ried x^ositions for research work in pure or applied botany will exist, 

 and as these positions will compete with the professorships in the best 

 universities, it seems probable that the salaries pertaining to them will 

 be approximately those paid at the larger colleges. 



In addition to bringing together facilities for research and rendering 

 them easily accessible to competent investigators, and maintaining 

 their own corps of workers, engaged in such study, institutions of 

 research have no small field of usefulness opened up as publishers of 

 the results of the work they have promoted. I shall have occasion 

 later to speak of the means of publication from the standpoint of the 

 student who is seeking to bring out his work in the best form, but it 

 also demands consideration from the point of view of the institution. 

 Much difficulty is experienced in looking up the literature of a subject 

 because of the large number of journals, etc., in which references must 

 be sought, and it is probable that at some time or other most workers 

 have impatiently wished that j)ublication could be confined to one or a 

 few channels. Simple as this would render the bibliography of botany, 

 it is obviously impossible, and the amount of work deserving or demand- 

 ing publication is so great and so rapidly increasing as to leave no doubt 

 that means of effecting the latter must be considerably augmented. To 

 publish the results of good work well is no less commendable or helpful 

 than to facilitate or perform such work. Nor is it less appropriate to 

 an institution such as I have in mind. The object of publication being 

 the adequate preservation and diffusion of a record of the results 

 of research, however, it is easily seen that harm may be done by inju- 

 dicious or ill-considered iiublication. While a volume of homogeneous 

 contents may be so published almost anywhere as to accomplish its 

 purpose, a serial publication ought to be started only when there is 

 reasonable probability that it will persist for a considerable length 

 of time. Granting this probability, a research institution wath adequate 

 funds forms one of the most satisfactory and efi'ective agencies of pub- 

 lication, since it can place its proceedings or reports in all of the prin- 

 cipal libraries of the world, a thing which the journals do not always 

 accomplish ; and not only can it thus amplify its field legitimately, but 

 almost of necessity it must assume the duty of publication if it is to 

 accomplish the greatest results possible from its direct investigation. 



One has only to pass a short time in the library of one of the largest 

 scientific institutions to be convinced that a great deal of activity is 

 manifested in the botanical world. Each month and each week bring 



