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AMERICAN V . 
JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
Vol. VIII July, 1921 No. 7 
THE RELATION OF CROP-PLANT BOTANY TO 
HUMAN WELFARE^ 
Carleton R. Ball 
(Received for publication January 17, 1921) 
It is with combined trepidation and pleasure that I endeavor to discuss 
before this gathering the subject of the relation of the botany of crop plants 
to human welfare. Trepidation because of the difficulty of adequately 
presenting so important a subject. Pleasure because I believe that a vital 
relation exists between the botany of crop plants and human welfare and 
rejoice at the opportunity to emphasize it to others. Let us define what we- 
shall discuss together. 
Botany 
What is botany? The dictionary tells us that it is the science of plant 
form, structure, function, relationship, and distribution. From this 
category we evolve several subdivisions of the science ; for example : 
Phytomorphology, the science of plant form and structure; 
Phytophysiology, the science of plant function and growth ; 
Phyto-ecology, the science of plant response to environment;, and 
Phytotaxonomy, the science of plant relationships. 
Some of these major divisions are themselves subdivided. For instance, 
taxonomy includes phytography, or plant description ; taxonomy proper, or 
plant classification; and nomenclature, or plant naming, the black sheep 
of the family. In like manner, plant ecology includes plant physiology 
and phytogeography, or plant distribution. 
In addition to these grand divisions of botany there are some important 
specialized phases of botanical science, such as phytopathology, or plant 
diseases; pharmacognosy, or pharmaceutical botany, dealing with medicinal! 
plants; and phytopaleontology, or paleobotany, the science of fossil plants, 
sometimes called fossil botany. Phytopathology, in turn, includes my- 
cology, or the taxonomy of fungi; physiology, or the function of both host 
and parasite; and ecology, or environmental response. Finally, there is 
^ Invitation paper read before the joint session of Section G, A.A.A.S., the Botanical 
Society of America, and the American Phytopathological Society, in the symposium on 
" The Relation of Botany to Human Welfare," at Chicago, December 29, 1920. 
[The Journal for June (8: 275-322) was issued June 30, 1921] 
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