Lanterna Rally

Author: Natural History Society of New Brunswick

Publisher:

Published: 2012-02-09

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781235851186

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1894 Excerpt: ... BULLETIN OP THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OP NEW BRUNSWICK. ARTICLE I. AN OUTLINE OF PHYTOBIOLOGY. WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE STUDY OF ITS PROBLEMS BY LOCAL BOTANISTS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR A BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ACADIAN PLANTS. Read May 1st, 1894. First Paper. It is clear to all botanists who note the signs of the times that the study of local Botany must take a new direction in the near future. Up to the present, under the favoring influences of intrinsic aesthetic interest, abundance everywhere of easily-handled materials, accurate terminology and excellent manuals, the systematic study of flowering plants has been the department of natural history most cultivated b those of scientific tastes, who must work without special training and away from the great centres. Hence has arisen the great class of local botanists. Their relationship to the science,, however, has been one of reciprocal advantage, for not only have they derived from it an occupation of elevated pleasure, of high educational value, and of radiant good influence, hut it in turn has profited greatly by their thorough explorations of local floras. But this mutually beneficial adjustment is becoming unbalanced. Not only on the one hand are the local botanists by their very devotion exhausting their field of systematic usefulness, but as well on the other, through the consequent narrowing of opportunity for original investigation and loss of its stimulating charm, the subjective value of the science to themselves is being impaired. Discoveries of real worth and studies in pursuit of new truth can now, for the most part, be made only at the expense of journeys from home often longer than time or means justify. The question, then, is forced upon us: In what direction lies a new field for local bot..