10 



Bulletin 6 



Society of America, undertook to tell the members why this 

 is the case. Without attempting to rehearse in detail his 

 excellent address, which has been printed in Science, I may 

 say that he attributed the decline of systematic botany to the 

 rise of experimental science and the impatience of the modern 

 youth with any branch which cannot be cultivated by this 

 method. He also mentioned the effect of the introduction of 

 the compound microscope and the tendency to run after nov- 

 elties. Whatever are the contributing causes, we cannot but 

 regret that the average college graduate of to-day, after spe- 

 cializing in botany, is not only unfamiliar with the flora of 

 his home county, but is unable to recognize the common 

 plants which may be sent in for identification. 



One thing, however, the systematic botanist can learn 

 from present-day tendencies, and that is the importance of 

 specialization. One of my predecessors in office was what 

 might be called a naturalist; he assembled a valuable collec- 

 tion of higher plants, made some studies of fungi, dabbled in 

 mosses and lichens, wrote bulletins on insect and weed pests, 

 and left to the institution an interesting collection of fossil 

 plants. I think we will all agree that the man who nowadays 

 leaves a footprint on the sands of time is the man who devotes 

 himself to the development of some one aspect of his subject. 

 I by no means deny the importance of a balanced training, 

 nor would I advocate too early specialization, but I believe 

 that the members of this club will best advance our science 

 by making themselves master of some aspect of the subject or 

 some group of plants. Let us acquire a reputation for expert 

 knowledge along some line. In this connection it is pleasing 

 to observe that some members of the club have distinguished 

 themselves in the way suggested. One of the practicable 

 lines of inquiry is that of the geographical range of individual 

 species, with a study of the conditions that have probably 

 determined such distribution. Such work, while beginning 

 with exact determination of species, leads to what is now 

 called ecology. I fully realize that many of us have been 

 studying ecology for years, only we did not call our work by 

 that name. The day seems to be at hand when scattered 

 observations are to be woven into the fabric of what may 

 properly be called a science. One aspect of ecology which 



