JOURNAL 



OF THE 







ROYAL Horticultural Society. 



ON CERTAIN RELATIONS BETWEEN THE PLANT AND 

 ITS PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT. 



By Prof. J. B. Farmer, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. 



Everyone who has had to do with the raising and growing of plants 

 is aware how readily many of them change their habit and structure 

 in relation to the kind of environment in which they grow. Conditions 

 of moisture, temperature, quality of soil, and a host of other physical 

 conditions all take their share in determining the final result. Besides 

 these things, there are other complex factors, such as the influence of, 

 and interaction between, one plant and another in the competition 

 for food, light, soil constituents, together with many other and more 

 obscure relationships which ought not to be ignored in any endeavour 

 to penetrate the veil which conceals so many of the secrets of vegeta- 

 tive growth, and hides from our ken so much that at first sight appears 

 as purely purposeful adaptation to this or that set of external 

 conditions. 



It seems to me, then, that the traditions of the Masters lectures 

 will not be greatly violated by an attempt, which must of necessity be 

 but an imperfect one, to indicate a few of the problems of plant Hfe, 

 some of which are not only of interest or importance to horticulturists, 

 but are those on which horticulturists are perhaps better quahfied than 

 most people to provide the clues needed to direct investigations into 

 profitable channels. I well recollect a conversation many years ago with 

 Dr. Masters himself, in which he advocated this point of view. 



VOL. XL. P 



Vol. XL. 1914. 



Part II. 



[Read June i6, 1914 ; Dr. D. H. Scoit in the Chair.] 



Being the Eleventh "Masters Lecture." 



