July, 1921] BALL RELATION OF BOTANY TO HUMAN WELFARE 
337 
cold, drought, and the many other pests and unfavorable influences which 
reduce crop production, genetics will help in combining existing varieties 
to produce other better adapted ones with the desired characters. At 
the same time undesirable characters may be eliminated. 
Prophets of the New Order 
I have been interested to discover what the leaders of botanical thought 
were emphasizing a quarter-century ago. On consulting the addresses 
presented about that time by the retiring presidents of the Botanical Society 
of America and the retiring chairmen of Section G of the American Associa- 
tion, I was particularly interested to find that already they were foreshadow- 
ing or openly proclaiming the importance of the economic phases of botany. 
It was especially interesting to note that three such veterans as Doctors 
Coulter, Trelease, and Galloway, as well as others, should have had this 
viewpoint in common. I cite these three especially because the first has 
devoted his entire career to so-called pure botany, the second has divided 
his affiliation between the wild and the cultivated plants, while the third 
has been engaged continuously on various phases of applied botany. 
Turning then to very recent pronouncements, I was especially grati- 
fied to note the point of view of Dr. Coulter in his address as retiring presi- 
dent of the American Association in December, 191 9. In this address, 
entitled "The Evolution of Botanical Research," he noted three botanical 
tendencies, as follows: 
1. To attack problems fundamental to some important practice, 
2. To realize that botanic problems are synthetic, and 
3. To recognize that plant structures are not static. 
He noted also three important features of future botany, namely: 
1. Broader training to be required of botanical workers, 
2. More extensive cooperation in research, and 
3. Better development of experimental control. 
The addresses of Dr. Flexner, three days ago, on "Twenty-five Years 
of Bacteriology," and of Dr. Pammel, today, on "Some Economic Phases of 
Botany," are striking records of achievement in applied botany but were 
given in your hearing and need no discussion here. 
Aesthetic Welfare 
So far all our discussion has been of the relation of crop-plant botany 
to material welfare. Its relation to the aesthetic and spiritual welfare of 
man is less obvious, though perhaps not so much less potent as some may 
think. At any rate, it is impossible to develop this phase adequately in 
the limits of the present paper. 
