58 
What is Botany? 
the teacher ; moreover it is decidedly attractive to students, who 
naturally respect a subject which gives them the scientific founda¬ 
tion for this or that operation in agriculture or industry. Among 
the many reasons why the applications of botany should not he 
neglected in the class room I reckon the most important to be 
that it may encourage a student eventually to choose a vocation 
in one of these fields. Too often what are really botanists’ jobs 
are filled by chemists who know very often little or nothing about 
botany at all. We need to develop the applied side and our¬ 
selves indicate the scientific foundations of practice, thus gradually 
building up a connection with industry in addition to that with 
the medical and teaching professions. 1 would go so far as to 
say that a botanist might do worse than take a practical and 
sympathetic interest in some branch of applied work. It will bring 
him into touch with extra-academic circles—growers, planters, 
foresters, technologists, hobbyists, etc.—with mutual advantage. 
We botanists need not only to do our work to the best of our 
ability, but also continually to broaden our circle if botany is to 
come by its own. 
F. W. OLIVER. 
January , 1919. 
WHAT IS BOTANY? 
To the Editor of The New Phytologist. 
Botany, as the Science of Plants, claims dominion over some 
ninety-nine per cent of the living matter on the surface of the earth 
and over most of the fossil remains under the surface. In extent 
and diversity of interest no other single science can equal it. 
As plants alone provide food and energy for the other small frac¬ 
tion of living matter they still form the one essential background to 
every human activity. At all times plant existence has loomed 
large in the minds of both practical and scientific men. Throughout 
the ages students have sat at the feet of those who knew, and the 
sages have taught with authority and enthusiasm what they would, 
probably all they could, with little reflection or current criticism 
as to what they should be teaching. 
Now, in this critical hour of a self-conscious age, it has come to 
be widely questioned what botany really consists of and what we 
ought to teach in centres of learning and education. With this 
