BOTANICAL OPPORTUNITY. 533 



able and willing to carry the contents of the library, at least in skeleton 

 form, to those who can not come to it; but the time has hardly yet come 

 when any American library is complete enough in all branches to offer 

 this aid with a i^easonable chance of doing what it promises, or so 

 manned as to make such assistance possible except at the sacrifice of 

 more valuable direct research. 



For the present, then, the investigator must be content to do his own 

 delving into the literature of his predecessors. Fortunately, much of 

 the earlier literature has been sought out by some of the writers on 

 any branch that has been the subject of earlier study, so that, starting 

 with a memoir of recent date, one is guided to others, each of which 

 may bring further references, until, if he have access to the works, 

 almost the entire earlier literature is unearthed. On the other hand, 

 the most recent literature of a subject is always the most difficult to 

 find and use. After a study has been gotten well under way, so that 

 the student is keenly alert to every observation or published item in 

 any way bearing on it, if he have access to a library receiving the 

 principal current journals he is not likely to overlook any important 

 publication on his specialty which then appears. As a rule, all of the 

 larger papers, at least, are noticed in Just's Jahresbericht, generally 

 not more than a year later than that for which the volume j)urports to 

 be compiled ; but as the Jahresbericht is alwaj^s some three years in 

 arrears, it is diflicult to prevent notes extending over a period of this 

 duration from being defective, at least for the earlier part of the time, 

 and there is at present no means of removing this difficulty, though 

 the plan proposed to zoologists a year ago, and, I suppose, tested dur- 

 ing the present season, if successful, would be equally applicable to 

 botany. 



So far as the final result is concerned, perhaps the manner in which 

 one's work is published is almost as important as the subject selected 

 or the method adopted for its investigation. Alphonse de Candolle, in 

 one of the most helpful treatises ever published in the hope of render- 

 ing botanical work methodical and productive,^ lays a great deal of 

 stress on the early selection of a form of publication for the results of 

 each important study. This done, the work continually shapes itself 

 to this end. Frequently there is much difficulty in securing the publi- 

 cation of a monograph or memoir in precisely the form and place 

 desired by the author, but there is seldom an insuperable obstacle in 

 the way of publishing any really meritorious work in about the manner 

 wished, provided it is suitably prepared. 



In general, it is desirable that works of a given class should be so 

 published that in seeking one a reader is likely to learn of another. 

 This appears less important for books than for shorter papers, since the 

 arrangement of independently issued volumes in a library, and the fact 

 that they are catalogued by authors, render it relatively easy to learn 



' La Phytographie, ou I'art de decrire les vegdtaiix consider^s sous differents points 

 de vue. Paris, 1880. 



