874 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 90. 



to the study of marine or seaside plants, 

 alpines, or tlie great class of succulents, 

 etc., characteristic of the arid regions of our 

 Southwestern States and Territories, and 

 in no other way, except in the field, can 

 these groups be studied satisfactorily, even 

 from the standpoint of the classificatory 

 botanist. 



Undoubtedly, too, the research institu- 

 tion of the future will count as a part of its 

 legitimate equipment, the provision, as 

 needed, of very liberal opportunities for its 

 staff to visit even distant regions for the 

 study, in their native homes, of plants which 

 cannot be cultivated even in special gar- 

 dens in such a manner as to be fully repre- 

 sentative. 



If the entire equipment here sketched in 

 outline is not only appropriate, but essen- 

 tial to the great centers of botanical inves- 

 tigation that are making their appearance 

 as results of the specialization and division 

 of labor that are now manifesting them- 

 selves in the endowment of research, it by 

 no means follows that every institution, 

 even of this class, should try to develop 

 from the start on all of the lines which, in- 

 tertwined, compose the complex tissue of 

 botany. With ample means, the ideal de- 

 velopment is that which from the begin- 

 ning recognizes all branches as of value, 

 and classifies and develops them alike in 

 proportion to their relative importance. 

 But to secure the greatest return for the 

 money expended, it is desirable to equip 

 fairly well before increasing the force of 

 salaried men much beyond what is needed 

 for the care and arrangement of the ma- 

 terial accumulating. This principle, if fol- 

 lowed out, almost forces an over-develop- 

 ment in the branches of special interest to 

 the earlier employees — a departure from 

 the ideal symmetry which is sure to be 

 justified by the performance 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 disadvan- 

 tage through an effort, however commend- 

 able it may at first appear, to secure a sym- 

 metrical equipment. 



With the evolution of centers of pure re- 

 search will appear new problems. Just as 

 the attendance of a large number of stu- 

 dents 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 connection with a university 

 of recognized standing, their equipment 

 will be utilized more or less fully in post- 

 graduate 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, they will sooner or later come to 

 represent a very large sum of invested 

 money, of which only a part is usefully em- 

 ployed at any given time, the remainder 

 being held as a necessary but temporarily 

 unproductive reserve. The same thing is 

 seen, to a certain extent, in all large libra- 

 ries and museums; but, unlike the general 

 library, of interest to the entire reading 

 public, or the collection of historical or po- 

 litical works, referred to by many people of 

 ordinary intellectual attainments, the ad- 

 vanced equipment in botany, for the most 

 part, is useful and interesting only to bot- 

 anists, so that, while it may possess a pass- 

 ing interest for the general student, its 



