186 STEVENSON. 



Those who speak thus only exercise the prerogative of igno- 

 rance, which is to despise that which one is too old or too lazy 

 to learn. The botanist's work is not complete when the care- 

 fully gathered specimen has been placed in the herbarium with 

 its proper label. That is but the beginning, for he seeks the 

 relation of plants in all phases. In seeking these he discovers facts 

 which often prove to be of cardinal importance. The rust which 

 destroys wheat in the last stage of ripening, the disgusting fun- 

 gus which blasts Indian corn, the poisonous ergot in rye, the: 

 blight of the pear and other fruits fall as much within the bot- 

 anist's study as do the flowers of the garden or the sequoias of 

 the Sierra. Not a few of the plant diseases which have threat- 

 ened famine or disaster have been studied by botanists, unknown. 

 to the world, whose explanations have led to palliation or cure.. 



The ichthyologist, studying the habit of fishes, discovered 

 characteristics which promptly commended themselves to men 

 of practical bent. The important industry of artificial fertiliza- 

 tion and the transportation of fish eggs, which has enabled man: 

 to restock exhausted localities and to stock new ones, is but the 

 outgrowth of closet studies which have shown how to utilize 

 Nature's superabundant supply. 



The entomologist has ahvays been an interesting phenomenon 

 to a large part of our population. Insects of beauty are attrac- 

 tive, those of large size are curious, while many of the minuter 

 forms are efficient in gaining attention. But that men should 

 devote their lives to the study of unattractive forms is to many 

 a riddle. Yet entomology yields to no branch of science in the 

 importance of its economic bearings. The study of the life 

 habits of insects, their development, their food, their enemies, a 

 study involving such minute details as to shut men off from 

 many of the pleasures of life and to convert them into typical 

 students, has come to be so fraught with relations to the public 

 weal that the State Entomologist's mail has more anxious letters 

 than that of any other officer. 



Insects are no longer regarded as visitations from an angry 

 Deity, to be borne in silence and with penitential awe. The in- 

 timate study of individual groups has taught in many cases how 



