BURGESS : PIGMENT CELLS OF PLANTS. 



53 



accoimts himself to be a lover of nature, he cares but little for such 

 things as Botany, or Zoology, or Entomology, or in fact any of the 

 other sciences unless presented to him in a Geological garb or dress. 

 Then, again the ardent lover of Botany, what does he care for Geology, 

 unless brought before him in a botanical point of view 1 What 

 does he see in stones, and rocks, and pebbles, collected with care in 

 all parts of the world and brought together at a great cost both of labour 

 and money, unless, indeed he may, here and there, see traces of extinct 

 forms of vegetation. The same, or similar remarks, equally apply to all the 

 other branches of science, we are all too apt to over estimate our favorite, or 

 " pet" pursuits and undervalue the favorite pursuits of others. Now, I 

 maintain we want all the ardent devotees to science; there is room for all; we 

 need all, and the more of this class we have, the better it will be for all. — It 

 is to such as these, that the world owes its onward progress in knowledge 

 and discovery ; it is to such as these, who can bring concentration of thought 

 and purpose, to bear on one subject specially, that we may expect to reap 

 continual fruits from the various fields in nature. 



If my friends will pardon me I will just throw out here, a practical 

 suggestion or two : let us all endeavour (in whatsver path our tastes may lead 

 us) to make close and minute observations of whatever we take in hand- — 

 let us avoid that general idea which some of our professional members are so 

 fond of carrying out when they name slides as "Leaf of Plant," — " Foot of 

 riy," — " Section of Cane," — " Tooth of Fish," — let us one and all determine 

 we will never have such a vaguely named object, under any pretence in our 

 cabinets, this may lead in time to a better state of things in that direction, 

 and if it does not, it is more than probable, that their services bye and bye 

 may be dispensed with altogether. 



Let us have every object minutely, as well as accurately named : for the 

 want of this much time is lost, and very often it happens that most inter- 

 esting facts are quite overlooked in this way — take for instance the Cuticle 

 of the Agave Americana, (incorrectly called the American Aloe) ; suppose 

 we get the upper surface of that plant's cuticle and proceed to closely inves- 

 tigate it, and another gets the under surface and proceeds to deal with it in 

 the same way, both come to a result the one very different from the other. — 

 And the most important fact of all Avould be in great danger of being over- 

 looked altogether — -the fact that the largest amount of respiration takes 

 place from the upper surface of the leaf, and which would have been self 

 evident, had both surfaces being examined together. And unless we are 



