aspects ot a broad and actively pursued science of plant 

 biology. It represents the usual observational stage in 

 the evolution of a science; most of the other aspects 

 employ, in addition to observation, the method of experi- 

 ment. It deals chiefly with the physical features of the 

 adult plant, its static features; they deal with its life 

 processes and its relations to its environment, its dynamic 

 features. If the New York Botanical Garden is to win a 

 place of broad leadership in the scientific world it must 

 share in the advance along other than systematic lines; 

 it must pursue its investigations into what are now 

 generally regarded as the more pregnant problems of 

 botanical science. In its large collections, its varied 

 topography, and its opportunities for propagation, to- 

 gether with its freedom from the political influences and 

 the demand for immediate practical results which might 

 easily hamper a state-controlled Experiment Station, 

 the Garden is well fitted to undertake such kinds of 

 investigation. Its present collections, indeed, afford 

 already abundant material for research into certain prob- 

 lems other than taxonomic. Most of the newer problems, 

 which are of varied nature, may be included, in general, 

 within the scope of plant physiology and plant pathology. 

 It has been suggested that one very important line of 

 research within the sphere of plant physiology which the 



Garden might profitably under- 

 Plant physiology 



take and in which little advance 



has heretofore been made, relates to the nutrition and 

 growth of forest and ornamental trees. Data acquired on 

 this topic would contribute to the subject of plant nutri- 

 tion in general, and specifically to the problem of the 

 maintenance of the Garden's own plantations and of 

 city shade trees. The problems of plant life in relation 

 to the chemistry and biology of the soil offer almost 



14 



