EDITORIAL 



In the midst of the great activity that at present character- 

 izes agriculture, forestry, horticulture, plant breeding, land- 

 scape gardening, and other subjects relating to plants, the 

 science of botany, the study of the plants, themselves, remains 

 practically at a standstill. The science has formed one of the 

 subjects taught in all good high schools for several generations 

 but the number of people interested in plants as plants has not 

 noticeably increased. It is certainly a deplorable fact that on 

 a continent containing more than a hundred million people 

 besides Mexicans, the best botanical journals cannot command 

 a circulation of as much as 2,000 copies. Agriculture, horti- 

 culture, and forestry we must have because they are necessary 

 to nourish, clothe and shelter our race, but it is no credit to our 

 intellectual attainments that the science of botany is so little 

 valued. 



All children love flowers and are interested in their habits, 

 uses and curious forms. Why is it, then, that when they have 

 grown up they have no taste for, or interest in, the plants? 

 Probably it is because the high schools pretty effectual^ take 

 their childish interests out of them. \Mien one has had the dry 

 bones of a science drummed intO' him for a year or so, he is 

 usually glad to quit. It was in no jesting spirit that the small 

 girl said she ''liked everything about plants except botany." 

 It is hoped that the dissatisfaction with the conduct of our 

 schools so generally expressed at present may result in such 

 adjustments of the course as to make botany foster an interest 



