endless opportunities for investigation. The Garden is 

 about to undertake one very promising research into 

 some of these problems of trees, namely, the study of the 

 hemlocks in relation to their environmental conditions, 

 both at the Garden itself and simultaneously at Ithaca, 

 Syracuse and New Haven. The physico-chemical relations 

 of plant protoplasm and the plant cell, the topic of hered- 

 ity in plant life, and many other physiological problems, 

 are crying for investigation. 



Plants are perhaps as much subject to disease as are 

 human beings and the lower animals, and the economic 



aspects of their maladies are 



Plant pathology 

 doubtless ol as great importance 



to the human race as are its own physical ills. Plants, 

 like men, are attacked by insects, fungi and bacteria; 

 they are subject to nutritional disturbances, malforma- 

 tions and injuries; their organs behave improperly; and 

 their physiological processes go wrong. In recent years 

 the experimental science of plant pathology has achieved 

 a prominent place within botanical science. While much 

 that has been learned so far concerns specific plant dis- 

 eases and methods of protecting plants from them, plants 

 offer peculiar opportunities for the study of the broader 

 aspects of disease processes in general, processes which 

 are exhibited by both plants and animals alike. Such 

 topics include susceptibility, immunity, the interrelations 

 of host and parasite, etc., and the belief is now growing 

 that the experimental investigation of such topics in 

 plants will throw light upon the disease processes of 

 animals and man. With the various prominent medical 

 institutions of New York now endeavoring to make the 

 city a great center for medical investigation, it seems fair 

 to urge that the Botanical Garden be enabled to contrib- 

 ute a share in this work of vital importance to mankind. 



•5 



