"SOME Relations of Botany to Horticulture!" It is strange that in these days any one should fail to see the relations of botany to horticulture, strange that any apology is necessary that the gardener should know plants. We do not question the necessity of physiology to the physician, nor of theology to the preacher, yet there are those in high position who would discourage the knowledge of plants for the plantsman ! One cannot define horticulture, nor any branch of it, without speaking of plants. Plants are the essence of it, and botany is but the classified knowledge of them. To know botany, then, is to know the fundamental principles of horticulture. To be sure, one can grow plants without knowing much about them. Parrots learn to talk without knowing the meaning of words. But a horticulturist should be more than a parrot.

We do not care to enlarge upon the various details in which botany aids the horticulturist, else we cheapen botany and horticulture alike. We stand for the broader life which botany must bring to every one who stirs the soil. We stand for its educational influences, its inspirations, its emotions, and its poetry. No horticulturist can rise to eminence without a symmetrical knowledge of botany. He cannot build a fire without fuel. He never scans the horizon. He never looks over the garden fence. He works in a treadmill.

The more one knows of his subject and its correlatives, the broader his ideas. A constricted horizon means constricted thought and methods of work. It means a life spent upon incidentals, while some of it, at least, ought to be spent upon principles. It means mere testing of varieties and cut. ting of seed-potatoes. We wish that every agricultural college and experiment station in the land had Professor Beal's words painted on the gate-posts : "No horticulturist without a thorough knowledge of the principles of several departments of botany is capable of planning and conducting and interpreting experiments".

Horticulture can never rise to the dignity of a polite art, nor to the position of a science, so long as it smothers itself in ignorance. Men do not rise above their aspirations. Horticulture is intrinsically a noble profession, and as soon as it is freed from narrowness and bigotry, it will assert itself. All education must come to its aid, but botany must come first and be foremost. " It will make him a good observer, improve his reason, strengthen his judgment, cultivate his taste, broaden his views, weaken his respect for the traditions of his fathers. It will sharpen his wits, make him a reliable investigator. It will enable him to become a leader instead of a follower".