Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1892-08-16

The science of botany as ordinarily con-
sidered and taught has not laid hold OF the
full amount of territory to which ii is en-
titled and it has not, therefore, reached its
full measure of usefulness. Strictly speak
ing, botany is the science Of plants, but by
general consent it appears to have d"arfed
itself into science of wild plants; or if it
deals with cultivated plants they are
such as fall to the care of bo-
tanical gardens, or. in other words, those
which are cultivated for the sole purpose of
maintaining a collection. IL is not strange
that in the earlier days botanists should
have eliminated from their domain the
whole realm of cultivated plants, for Guilt
walton then meant little else than the main
tenance and Improvement of plants for
merely economic purposes and there was
little science of cultivation. But now that
the teachings of evolution have thrown Il
new purpose into the study of all natural
objects, cultivated plants have acquired
fascinating interest from the album
dant light which they throw upon yari-
alton and descent. In fact. aside from
paleontology, there is no direction in which
such abundant material can be found for
the study of evolution as in cultivated
plants, for in nearly all of them the varia-
ton is fully as great as in domesticated an
finals, while the species are very many
times more numerous and, by the foster
ing aid rendered by man, the accumulatlve
effects of modified environment and selee-
ton are much more quickly seen-ani
therefore more intelligible- in wild
plants.
Cultivated plants afford within definite
periods of time as much variation and pro-
erosion as their wild prototypes exhibit in
ages. So the garden is one of the best
places in which to study evolution, 1t is a
common opinion, to be sure, that the varia-
ton of cultivated plants is anomalous and
unnstructive because influenced by man,
but this is wholly erroneous But wholly
aside from the destinations of pure science.
cultivated plants and cultivation itself de
mand the attention of the hotanists, for
horticulture is nothing more than an appli-
cation of the principles of botany. Just
now. mycology is making important addi-
tons to horticultural practice but there are
greater fields for the applications of an exact
science of plant physiology, whenever that
science shall have reached a proportionate
development. In short, the possibilities in
| horticulture. both in science and practice,
are just as great as they are in the science
of botany upon which it rests and inasmuch
, rs it is absolutely impossible to separate
horticulture and botany by any definition
or any practical test the two should go to-
gether in an ideal presentation of the science
of plants. Horticulture belongs to botany
| rather than to agriculture.
| The ideal chair or department of botany.
therefore, should comprise, in material
equipment, laboratories, botanic garden.
greenhouses, orchards, vegetable and orna-
mental gardens, all of which should be
maintained for purposes of active investi-
CATION rather than as mere collections; and
am sure that no department of botany can
accomplish the results of which the science
is capable until such breadth of equipment
is secured. Botanists, as a rule, care
little for gardens and cultivated
plants and hortlculturists are apt to under
value the importance of scientific training
and investigation, but the time cannot be
far distant when men shall appear with
sufficient scientific and practical training to
appreciate the needs of the whole science
and with enough executive ability to man.
age its many int rests.--Prof. l.. IL. Bailey.
| in Science.