339] B. E. Invingston 141 
been assigned or prescribed. He also learns that the plan- 
ning and the interpretation of experimental work require far 
more serious attention than does the work itself, for a poorly 
planned or poorly interpreted piece of work can result in but 
mediocre results. The actual operations of experimenta- 
tion may be best learned by carrying out a well made plan, 
and the interpretation and presentation of the results ob- 
tained determine for the most part how valuable they shall 
be in the development of the science. Thus as much em- 
phasis is placed upon clear imagination, clear thinking, and 
clear presentation, as upon the many: details of the manipu- 
lation of apparatus, so frequently considered as constitu- 
ting scientific knowledge. This department does not aim to 
teach the subject, but it carries out investigations and tries 
to help the workers to become independent in the planning, 
prosecution, and interpretation of research. 
A single course of semi-formal lectures, lasting through the 
year, with prescribed laboratory experiments, suffices to bring 
the students into contact with the various phases of the sub- 
ject, and instruction is thereafter mainly personal, in the 
form of conferences upon the numerous matters that arise in 
the prosecution of research. No attempt is made to stand- 
ardize the students beyond the elementary phases of the 
subject, but each one is encouraged to develop along lines 
determined by its own natural bent. Consequently, problems 
for research are not generally “assigned,” as the phrase goes 
in many university laboratories, but the prospective investi- 
gator is led and assisted to choose a problem according to his 
own earlier training and present interest and enthusiasm. An 
attempt is made, however, to discourage the taking up of 
any problem that does not promise results of a definite nature 
which, when they are obtained and interpreted, will surely 
fit into the general structure of plant physiology. 
It appears probable that the majority of our students will 
eventually enter the field of practically applied physiology, 
as investigators in agricultural or forestry experiment sta- 
tions, or in commercial establishments; but our point of 
