400 Goodale — Development of Botany Since 1818. 



science had not then begun to dissociate allied subjects, 

 and, consequently, botanists felt that they would be at 

 home in this journal conducted by a chemist. Botanists 

 responded promptly to this invitation with interesting- 

 contributions. 



It is well to remember that the appliances at the com- 

 mand of naturalists at the date when the Journal began 

 its service, were imperfect and inadequate. The botanist 

 did not possess a convenient achromatic microscope, and 

 he was not in possession of the chemical aids now deemed 

 necessary in even the simplest research. Hence, atten- 

 tion was given almost wholly to such matters as the 

 forms of plants and the more obvious phenomena of 

 plant-life. In view of the poverty of instrumental aids 

 in research, the results attained must be regarded as sur- 

 prising. 



In the very first volume of the Journal, bearing the date 

 of 1818, there are descriptions of four new genera and of 

 four new species of plants ; certainly a large share to 

 give to systematic botany. Besides these articles, there 

 are some instructive notes concerning a few plants, which 

 up to that time had been imperfectly understood. There 

 are four Floral Calendars which give details in regard 

 to the blossoming and the fruiting of plants in limited 

 districts, a botanical subject of some importance but 

 likely to become tedious in the long run. Just here, the 

 skill of the editor in limiting undesirable contributions is 

 shown by his tactful remark designed to soothe the feel- 

 ings of a prolix writer whose too long list of plants in a 

 floral calendar he had editorially cut down to reasonable 

 limits. The editor remarks, "such extended observa- 

 tions are desirable, but it may not always be convenient 

 to insert very voluminous details of daily floral occur- 

 rence. " It is convenient to consider by themselves some 

 of the botanical contributions published in the first series 

 of volumes of the Journal during a period of twenty 

 years, the period before Asa Gray became .actively and 

 constantly associated with the Journal. 



In systematic and geographical botany one finds com- 

 munications from Douglass and Torrey (4, 56, 1822) 

 on the plants of what was then the North-west ; Lewis C. 

 Beck (10, 257, 1826; 11, 167, 1826; 14, 112, 1828) contri- 

 buted valuable papers on the botany of Illinois and Mis- 

 souri ; there is a literal translation by Dr. Ruschenberger 



