Report on Botany. 189 



dimorphism among the lower orders of animals, might we 

 not have reasonably expected to find it also among the 

 lower orders of plants ? And as it is alike interesting 

 and important to know the specific unity of a caterpillar 

 and a butterfly, or of a tadpole and a frog, so it is also 

 desirable to know the true relationship of rust and mildew, 

 of Uredo and Puccinia, of Lecythea and Aregma, of Cytis- 

 pora and Valsa, and of Cladosporium and Sphseria. A 

 wide field for botanical investigation is here opened. The 

 tracing of the connection of unlike forms and the associating 

 together as one species, fungi hitherto considered as belong- 

 ing not merely to distinct species, but even to different 

 genera and orders have but just been begun. Long con- 

 tinued and often repeated observations, most rigid analysis 

 and careful experiment can alone carry on and complete 

 this work and give us a full and correct knowledge of these 

 obscure plants in all their phases of development. 



In glancing over the more recent botanical records we 

 can not fail to observe that much of the attention of bota- 

 nists seems now to be devoted to the investigation of the 

 modes of the fertilization of flowers. What plants are 

 capable of self-fertilization ; what plants require cross fertili- 

 zation ; what are the natural arrangements for securing this; 

 how far is it dependent upon the intervention of insects ; 

 how far upon air currents or winds, and how is it affected 

 by cultivation, are some of the important questions sought 

 to be answered. We say important, for a correct knowledge 

 of this subject has a direct bearing upon the interests of 

 the fruit grower, the gardener and the husbandman. A 

 vine dresser once remarked in my hearing that he kept 

 bees not so much for their honey as because his vines 

 thereby bore more grapes. The bees carrying the pollen 

 from flower to flower gave its fertilizing influence to the 

 ovaries and the consequence was full clusters. A fruit 

 grower, after a series of cloudy rainy days happening at a 



