584 



A PLEA FOR A BROADER BOTANY. 



into a heavily timbered park, my attention 

 number of squirrels gathering cones near 

 Not having been seen by the busy little creatures, 

 I concealed mys_elf 

 behind a rock and 

 watched their work. 



Their storehouse 

 was around the foot 

 ^f^^^ of a large Engelmann 

 spruce, and evidently 

 (S'^^ had been used many 



" *=^^^^fe=- years. While all worked to- 



gether in harmony, they ap- 

 peared to be divided off into 

 families or small groups, and 

 each group confined its 

 labors to a single tree. Some 

 of the squirrels were up in 

 the top of the tree cutting 

 down cones, which others 

 took up, one at a time, in 

 their mouths, and scampered 

 away to the common storage 

 grounds. 



After satisfying my curios- 

 ity so far as the ' ' field-work " 

 was concerned, I came out of hiding to examine the place 

 that all interests seemed to center about. The cone ac- 

 cumulations of many years had made a bed from one to 

 three feet deep, and 30 feet in diameter. The season for 

 collecting seeds being well advanced, a very large quan- 

 tity had been stored av.'ay. At least $75 worth of seeds 

 could have been secured in the cones th..'re found buried, 

 and some of them were from very rare and valuable 

 species of coniferous trees. The little holes, crowded 

 together like cells in a honeycomb, contained at least 

 seven varieties of cones, and yet each excavation con- 

 tained seeds of but one variety. I learned afterward, by 

 observation, the reason for this method of storage. Each 

 family or company gathered from one tree at a time, 

 and used only the holes dug by its own members. 



SoLiDAGO Canadensis 

 (See page 583.) 



My presence created a great commotion amoug ih -rc 

 little nomads of the mountain forest. They scolded and 

 chattered in the most vehement manner Some of the o'd 

 ones descended from the trees and came within a few feei 

 of me, in their efforts to drive ma away. The upro r <- 

 the noisy little creatures attracted the attention of oth' 

 squirrels farther up the canon, bringing them down, u 

 their number had swelled to a hundred or more. 



Returning to the spot a few days later to secure som,- 

 samples of the rare varieties of cones, I was surprised t > 

 find that every one had been removed, and not one of the 

 little black squirrels was to be seen. I knew they could 



SOLIDAGO LANCEOLATA. (See page 583.) 



not have gone far away, and that further intrusion would 

 bring them out from their hiding-places to repeat the 

 scene of the week before ; but I decided to leave them in 

 peaceful possession of their rights, and did not disturb 

 them again. Since then, when prospecting for the rare 

 and beautiful trees and plants among the Rocky 

 Mountains, the squirrels have sometimes rendered my 

 valuable service in securing choice collections. 



Denver, Colo. D. S. Gri.mes. 



A PLEA FOR A BROADER BOTANY, 



-ICLUDING CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



|HE science of botany, as ordinarily con- 

 sidered and taught, has not laid hold 

 of the full amount of territory to 

 which it is entitled, and it has not, 

 therefore, reached its full measure of 

 usefulness. Strictly speaking, botany 

 is the science of plants, but by general 

 consent it appears to have dwarfed itself into a science of 

 wild plants, or if it deals with cultivated plants, they are 

 such as fall to the care of botanical gardens, or, in other 

 words, those which are cultivated for the sole pur- 

 pose of maintaining a collection. It is not strange th it 

 in the earlier days botanists should have eliminated from 



their domain the whole realm of cultivated plants, for 

 cultivation then meant little else than the maintenance 

 and improvement of plants for merely economic pur- 

 poses, and there was little science of cultivation. But 

 now that the teachings of evolution have thrown a new 

 purpose into the study of all natural objects, cultivated 

 plants have acquired a fascinating interest from the 

 abundant light which they throw upon variation and de- 

 scent. In fact, aside from paleontology, there is no di- 

 rection in which such abundant material can be found 

 for the study of evolution as in cultivated plants, for in 

 nearly all of them the variation is fully as great as in 

 domesticated animals, while the species are very many 



