THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



37 



a theory had begun to appear. Darwin's work was to perceive 

 how the facts fitted and tO' estabhsh the theory upon a solid 

 basis of fact and experiment. The opportunities for becoming 

 a Linnaeus, a Darwin or a DeVries are rapidly becoming rarer, 

 but anybody can be a discoverer of new facts and thus be a very 

 real contributor to the advance of science. We trust that our 

 readers will bear this in mind during the approaching season 

 for outdoor work and study and send us their notes for record. 



* * >!c 



It is a mistake to assume that because one has not the 

 leisure or means for foreign travel that he must therefore re- 

 main in ig'norance of the plants of distant lands. If he cannot 

 go to the plants, he can reverse Mohammed's procedure and 

 bring the plants to himself. There is nobody so- poor that he 

 cannot control a bit of land and in possession of this all the 

 rest is easy. Seeds may be bought of the seedsman or secured 

 by exchange from correspondents in other parts of the world. 

 Most botanical gardens offer the seeds of rare and curious 

 plants from remote countries in exchange for even common 

 things in other localities and our Government annually dis- 

 tributes may seeds of this kind in addition to the stuff with 

 which Congressmen endeavor to beguile their constituents in 

 the spring. To plant a packet of rare seeds and watch the sub- 

 sequent growth of the plants until a previously unknown flower 

 unfolds is an absorbing occupation and a pretty fair substitute 

 for tracking the species to its native lair. Besides, this method 

 avoids the mosquitos, snakes, sunburn, fatig'ue and other dis- 

 comforts that fall to the lot of the explorer. In our garden 

 during the growing season, scarcely a day passes without the 

 appearance of some new form among the flowers. A trip 

 around the grounds is a veritable voyage of discovery. Hav- 

 ing made various exploring trips of our own in times past, we 

 unhesitatingly pronounce in favor of travel when possible, in 

 spite of its discomforts, but when tied to a desk by circum- 



