103 



As Dr. Sinnott was unable to attend the meetings he sent a 

 letter from which the following is quoted : 



Most happy reports have come to me as to the pleasant and profitable 

 times enjoyed by every one at this famous annual event. I am glad to say a 

 word or two, thus at long distance, about what the Club means to me and 

 what it should mean to the people of the New York region. 



As a professional botanist I have found it most stimulating to meet 

 frequently with people whose interest in plants is purely an avocation. Not 

 only is their enthusiasm infectious but their ideas and knowledge are of 

 great value scientifically. As a means for mutual acquaintance and inter- 

 change of ideas between the large number of professional botanists and the 

 much larger number of non-professional ones the Club renders an impor- 

 tant service to the science of Botany itself. 



Still more valuable, however, is its part in focussing intelligent attention 

 and interest upon plant life. There is an instinctive love in the heart of al- 

 most every one for plants. This may, and frequently does, express itself only 

 in an admiration for flowers and a desire to pick them. On a higher level it has 

 led to the tremendous spread of the garden movement in the past two or 

 three decades. Even this, however, is largely an aesthetic enthusiasm unless it 

 reaches further than mere admiration for plants. Only when a person 

 catches a glimpse of the remarkably intricate and beautiful structures of the 

 plant and of the amazing manner in which it maintains its life, and only 

 when he sees the plant population of his region as a result of a long historical 

 process of evolution and migration, and its members as beautifully adapted 

 to the various conditions which present themselves — only then does he 

 experience the real fervor of botanical enthusiasm. In this age of the machine 

 when life in so many respects is artificial, it is becoming more and more 

 necessary to keep in touch with natural and fundamental realities, and an 

 intelligent interest in the plant kingdom is the best means I know for attain- 

 ing this end. In the great problem of making people happier and persuading 

 them to live fuller lives I am convinced that Botany — together of course 

 with nature study of all sorts — has an increasingly important role to play. 

 The Torrey Club is the natural focus for all these activities in the New York 

 region and should be the means of drawing into Botany, as an avocation, 

 thousands of people who now look upon the science as a useless and even 

 silly diversion. The Club can do this best by bringing people in the open to 

 see plants as they grow in the wild, as is being done by our field trips. 



The geological trips were by automobile to the tops of several 

 of the higher hills to get a general view of the topography, while 

 the leader described the changes that had occurred in the past 

 ages. Outcrops of the Pre-Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian and 

 Devonian rocks were visited as well as hills and deltas of glacial 

 materials. Fossils were hunted in several places — mollusks, brachi- 

 opods, trilobites and algae being found. In addition Bevin's rock 

 shelter where Indian hunting parties camped in early days was 

 visited. 



