-3  Next  Steps  in  Botanical  Science.  {^Zl^t 
tion  and  maintenance.  When  we  fully  reach  a  condition  of  scien- 
tific sanity  we  shall  agree  upon  such  a  program  as  will  assign  par- 
ticular fields  of  work  to  those  institutions  that  are  best  able  to 
<  are  for  them,  and  it  follows  that  students  will  be  sent  to  these 
for  such  specialties.  In  the  case  of  the  state  institutions  there  is 
.  lready  the  beginning  of  the  attempt  to  reduce  needless  duplication 
— in  some  instances  crudely  and  awkwardly,  it  is  true — but  the 
significant  thing  is  that  there  is  already  an  attempt  to  reduce 
..uplication.  Which  suggests  that  "the  children  of  this  world  are 
in  their  generation  wiser  than  the  children  of  light." 
This  is  not  the  place  for  the  discussion  of  the  details  of  the 
educational  co-operation  which  is  coming — a  co-operation  which 
will  result  in  a  conservation  of  educational  energy.  As  the  details 
pre  needed  they  will  be  worked  out.  but  I  may  be  permitted  to 
suggest  that  in  the  near  future  we  shall  reach  a  solution  something 
like  the  following: 
(a)  That  the  small  colleges  shall  provide  a  standard  course  in 
general  botany,  with  adequate  facilities  as  to  material  and  apparatus. 
(b)  That  the  larger  colleges  and  universities  shall  provide  an 
identical  standard  course  for  those  of  its  students  who  have  not 
pursued  this  subject  in  the  small  colleges,  and  to  this  they  will 
add  certain  advanced,  also  standardized,  courses,  requiring  facilities 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  small  colleges. 
(c)  Then  will  come,  especially  in  the  state-supported  schools, 
such  advanced  courses  as  are  required  by  the  nature  of  the  in- 
stitutions, and  the  needs  of  each  particular  state;  as  the  study 
of  useful  plants,  noxious  plants,  local  systematic  botany, 
dendrology,  pathology,  etc. 
(d)  Last  will  come  a  division  of  labor  with  regard  to  the  more 
profound  lines  of  research  and  teaching.  Certain  favored  institu- 
tions will  place  especial  emphasis  upon  minute  anatomy  (cytology 
and  histology),  or  special  morphology,  or  physiology,  or  plant 
breeding,  or  ecology,  or  phytogeography,  or  special  taxonomy,  or 
general  and  experimental  evolution,  or  botanical  history,  etc. 
These  suggestions  are  not  chimerical.  They  are  indicated  by 
the  recent  trend  of  scientific  thought,  which  recognizes  more  and 
more  the  value  of  the  conservation  of  human  effort.  And  as  I  look 
into  the  future  a  vision  rises  before  me  of  the  scientific  armv, 
