BOTANICAL WORK OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 1 



By W. T. Thisblton-Dyer, F. R. S. 



The establisliment of a new section of the British Association, 

 devoted to botany, can not but be regarded by the botanists of this 

 country as an event of the greatest importance. For it is practically 

 the first time that they have possessed an independent organization of 

 their own. It is true that for some years past Ave have generally been 

 strong enough to form a separate department of the old Biological 

 Section D, on the platform of which so many of us in the past have 

 acted in some capacity or other, and on which, indeed, many of us may 

 be said to have made our first appearance. We shall not start, then, 

 on our new career without the remembrance of filial affection for our 

 parent, and the earnest hope that our work may be worthy of its great 

 traditions. 



The first meeting of the section, or, as it was then called, committee, 

 at Oxford was held in 1832. And though there has been from time to 

 time some difference in the grouping of the several biological sciences, 

 the two great branches of biology have only now for the first time 

 formally severed the partnership into which they entered on that occa- 

 sion. That this severance, if inevitable from force of circumstances, 

 is in some respects a matter of regret, I do not deny. Specialization is 

 inseparable from scientific progress; but it will defeat its own end in 

 biology if the specialist does not constantly keep in touch with those 

 fundamental principles which are common to all organic nature. We 

 shall have to take care that we do not drift into a position of isolation. 

 Section D undoubtedly afforded a convenient opportunity for discuss- 

 ing many questions on which it was of great advantage that workers in 

 the two different fields should compare their results and views. But I 

 hope that by means of occasional conferences we shall still, in some 

 measure, be able to preserve this advantage. 



'Opening address by W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, M. A., F. R. S., C. M. G., C. I. E., 

 director of the Royal Gardens, at 1895 meeting of tlie British Association at Ipswich, 

 printed in Report of the British Association, 1895, and in Nature, No. 1352, vol. 52 ; 



September 26, 1895. 



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