XiuaJyPm3m'}     Next  Steps  in  Botanical  Science.  63 
shared  with  the  world  powers  in  a  territorial  growth  which  has 
extended  its  boundaries  far  beyond  those  known  to  the  fathers,  and 
we  have  annexed  much  contiguous  and  even  some  remote  territory 
in  a  most  imperialistic  fashion.  It  may  be  comforting  to  some 
people  to  know  that  during  all  this  time  there  have  been  those 
who  have  constantly  and  consistently  lifted  up  their  voices  in 
protest  against  this  contravention  of  the  practise  of  the  fathers,  and 
the  breaking  down  and  removal  of  the  ancient  landmarks.  In  all 
these  years  there  have  been  botanical  anti-expansionists,  but  like 
their  brothers  in  the  national  field  they  have  been  overwhelmed, 
and  the  tide  of  expansion  has  swept  on  unchecked. 
Consider  for  a  few  minutes  the  botany  of  forty  years  ago, 
when  you  could  count  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand  the  American 
colleges  that  had  chairs  of  botany.  And  here  I  use  the  term 
chair  advisedly,  for  they  were  literally  chairs  and  not  departments, 
much  less  laboratories.  And  everywhere  else  in  the  colleges  of 
the  country  the  chairs  of  botany  were  represented  by  what  Holmes 
so  aptly  called  "  settees "  from  the  number  of  subjects  taught 
therefrom;  The  botany  dispensed  from  these  chairs  was  the  de- 
lightful study  of  the  external  morphology  of  the  higher  plants, 
especial  emphasis  being  laid  upon  the  structure  of  flowers  and 
fruits.  And  it  may  truly  be  said  here  that  often  the  teaching 
was  done  very  well,  far  better  than  many  a  botanist  to-day  is 
wont  to  imagine.  I  am  pretty  sure  that  in  general  the  teaching 
was  as  successfully  done  then  as  it  is  now.  There  were  some 
poor  teachers  then  as  there  are  now,  and  there  were  some  inspiring 
teachers  then  who  touched  their  pupils  with  the  sacred  fire,  as  there 
are  now  some  who  have  had  a  divine  call  to  teach  and  inspire 
and  help. 
And  with  this  external  morphology  there  was  always  associated 
the  classification  of  the  higher  plants,  in  its  simpler  form  the 
pleasurable  pastime  of  identifying  the  plants  of  the  neighborhood, 
and  in  its  more  advanced  form  represented  by  the  work  of  Torrey 
and  Gray  and  Vasey  and  Engelmann.  And  we  should  judge  the 
systematic  botany  of  that  day  by  the  work  of  these  masters  and 
not  by  the  diversions  of  its  amateurs;  and  you  will  agree  with  me 
that  so  judged  the  systematic  botany  of  that  period  will  not  fall 
short  of  any  standard  we  have  set  up  in  these  later  days. 
The  botany  of  that  day  was  not  without  its  laborious  investiga- 
tions and  its  tangible  results.    Every  new  area  was  a  great  out- 
