12 PLANT PHYSIOLOGY 



Correlated with goodness of facilities and tools goes proper 

 neatness in their use. The experiment house should be kept 

 in the perfection of condition, the more especially as the nature 

 of the material tempts to untidiness and the present education 

 of youth predisposes to carelessness. A cleanliness habit should 

 prevail, leading among other things, to the cleaning of all appli- 

 ances before they are put away, and a cleaning again before 

 they are used. Plants under experiment should have clean 

 pots with saucers, and should be kept well watered and well 

 groomed, and should never be allowed to exhibit the distress 

 of neglect. Apparatus should be set up in a neat and workman- 

 like manner, and should be placed exactly in the middle or 

 focus of the table, with a clean margin about; and nowhere 

 should loose ends, makeshift devices, unsymmetrical arrange- 

 ments, forgotten tools, dust or debris appear. Indeed it is not 

 too much to expect that all experimentation should be done in 

 a manner distinctly artistic, with attention to all those details 

 which go to make up a pleasing effect. These features have 

 not, perhaps, so much value in themselves as they have in their 

 reflex effect upon the workers. A slovenly experiment house is 

 an advertisement of slovenly minds in charge, and a temptation 

 to slovenly work, while an artistically kept house reflects a care- 

 ful spirit and encourages to precise work. Care, attention to 

 detail, neatness, a large simplicity, — these are scientific. 



Plant Physiology is distinctively an experimental science, 

 and hence necessitates a knowledge of the nature and the logic 

 of experimentation, together with a habit of the proper use 

 thereof. 



A really good experimenter is bom, not made; for there 

 is a sort of experimental instinct, which includes a combination 

 of inquisitiveness, faith in one's own powers, pleasure and natu- 

 ral skill in mechanical manipulation, and ready perception 

 of the value, of evidence. All of these may, however, to some 

 extent be cultivated. An experiment, in its essence, is a ques- 

 tion asked of nature, and should always be the direct definite 

 question of a thoughtful seeker after knowledge. It should 



