TORREYA 



Vol. 8. 



No. 6. 



June, 1908 



BOTANY.* 



By Herbert Maule Richards. 



So much then for the purely theoretical side of botanical 

 research of which I have presented a hasty glimpse. It is 

 necessary before closing to make some reference to the utilitarian 

 aspect ; where and how botany directly serves the material needs 

 of man. I hold it myself to be a matter of some pride that a 

 science like botany with a side so purely theoretical and imprac- 

 tical can also lend itself to further, in such important ways as it 

 does, the well-being of mankind, for in the direct application of 

 botanical information to agricultural questions the ways and 

 means of life may be ameliorated. Moreover, it is some of the 

 most theoretical and recondite researches which have led to the 

 most important practical results. 



It is possible to consider only a few phases of the practical 

 application of botany, and I will choose those which are not 

 commonly recognized, and which require a high degree of 

 special botanical training. The necessity of botanical knowledge 

 in the use of plants and their products in the arts, or as drugs, 

 is easily understood without further reference, and such uses do 

 not necessarily involve any broad knowledge of plants as a 

 whole. 



It is quite different, however, in the matter of plant pathology, 

 for here every channel of botanical information must be used to 

 investigate plant ailments. Bacteria and parasitic fungi, which 

 are themselves plants of a low order, are the cause of the bulk 

 of plant diseases and for that reason the study of their life his- 



* A lecture delivered at Columbia University in the Series of Science, Philosophy, 

 and Art, December 4, 1907, copyrighted and published by the Columbia University 

 Press, February, 1908, and reprinted by permission in Torreya, beginning with the 

 March number. 

 [No. 5, Vol. 8, of Torreya, comprising pages 93-124, was issued May 19, 1908. 



125 



