102 



thus a very special technique has been developed aud is still developing. 

 Cytology might be defined, therefore, as morphology at the limit of tech- 

 nique. 



In more recent years there has been another outgrowth from morphol- 

 ogy and still a part of it. For many years there had been what was recog- 

 nized to be a great rubbish heap of facts called anatomy. For example, 

 the classic "Comparative Anatomy of Phanerogams and Ferns," by De 

 Bary, contains a mass of facts, but they are inchoate. Many of them were 

 used in instruction, for in the early days of morphological instruction facts 

 were simply collected without reference to their relationships. Presently, 

 as morphology began to develop ideas, it was felt that these anatomical 

 facts might mean something when organized ; but in the absence of such 

 organization they were largely abandoned in instruction. Recently, how- 

 ever, there has been rescued from this rubbish heap the new subject of 

 vascular anatomy, which has become a tremendous instrument in the 'de- 

 velopment of our knowledge of plant groups and of the evolution of vascu- 

 lar plants in particular. Thus vascular anatomy has greatly extended 

 morphology, which at first chiefly concerned itself with the reproductive 

 structures. It still remains for some one to organize in a similar way 

 the vegetative structures outside of the vascular system, and then morphol- 

 ogy for the first time will have its facts fairly in hand. 



Under the shadow of this morphological development there appeared 

 another growth known as pathology. The progress made in plant pathol- 

 ogy during the period covered by the life of this Academy is familiar to 

 many of its members. It began as morphology, but as it progressed it 

 became more and more clear that it would have to join itself to physiology, 

 and so pathology may be called a cross between morphology and physiology 

 in its recent development. 



Another great field that came in connection with this development 

 of morphology, even more recently, is paleobotany. There has been such 

 a subject ever since people have uncovered plant remains and their im- 

 pressions in the rocks; but its method was to match fossil fragments 

 with living plants, so that identification was always uncertain. The tech- 

 nique of today, however, has enabled us to secure knowledge of structures, 

 and since vascular anatomy has been put upon a phylogenetic basis we have 

 a key by which the relationships of these ancestral plants may be un- 

 locked. 



