BOTANICAL OPPORTUNITY. 531 



sboukl his powers of observation be well developed, but lie should be 

 given more discipline in reasoning than is now customary, though the 

 botanists of a generation ago counted among their number several men 

 who are even more widely known as philosophers. 



Equipped for the work, and enabled to use the material facilities 

 that have been brought together against the day of his need, much 

 depends on the early and wise formation of the investigator's plans. 

 Except for the tasks set by a teacher, and really long contemplated by 

 him and carried out by his intelligence, if through the eyes and hands 

 of pupils, few pieces of valuable research are taken up on the spur of 

 the moment, without previous thought on the part of the investigator. 

 They are usually the outgrowth of reflection started, perhaps, by some 

 casual observation or the remark of another, and turning and return- 

 ing until it ultimately shapes itself into a definite plan. Simple as it 

 may be in theory, few things are more difficult in practice than the 

 formation and inception in early life, inexperienced, and often without 

 certainty of the iDOwer of continuance for any great length of time, of 

 a plan for a single i^iece of research work worthy of the devotion of a 

 lifetime; and few and fortunate are the men, even among those who 

 have outlined and entered upon such a task, who are not forced from 

 the path by side issues, or whose lives are not unduly short. More 

 commonly one must be content to choose several smaller subjects, for 

 their own sakes somewhat closely related to one another, if possible, 

 and to follow these up in succession. It is surj)rising how blind even 

 the sharpest eyed among us are to all that does not directly interest 

 us, and it is an equal surprise to see how quickly one's eyes open to 

 things which he has once begun to think of and look for. If for no 

 other reason than this, I would again urge breadth of early training, 

 as giving the first impulse to many a series of sj)ecial observations to 

 be followed up in later life. 



Once a subject is chosen, observations accumulate with surprising 

 rapidity, and next to the selection of a subject nothing is so important 

 as system in pursuing it. If we do not see it in ourselves, each one of 

 us can see in others a great waste of energy, resulting from shiftless 

 and ill-considered methods of procedure, by which the mind is so dis- 

 tracted and the memory so overloaded with unessentials and disasso- 

 ciated fragments that those which belong together are not matched, 

 nor the missing bits, in plain view, gathered. How often do we have 

 to return, time after time, and review partial work that we have had to 

 dismiss temporarily from the mind, in which, meantime, has been lost 

 the connection between the completed portion and the continuation 

 awaiting our leisure. A phenomenal memory may enable one to work 

 in this disjointed fashion without the production of scrappy results or 

 the review of all that has been done each time that the task is resumed; 

 but for those not so gifted, order and method are absolutely necessary, 

 and next to a clear idea of the end aimed at I should place the imme- 

 diate making of full and exact notes as their most essential part 



