SI6 [07 QT [FROM THE AMERICAN JOURNAL GF Sc FrNcE. VOL. XLII, Octopsr, 1891.] ee USsErFUL PLANTS OF THE FUTURE. SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY By Groree Lincotn Goopate, Cambridge, Mass. i its te Ad Be With Compliments of the Author. Dr. Goodale ventures to ask his correspondents to send him any facts of interest regarding the local or exceptional uses of any plants, especially of those wild plants which have not yet founda place in the © economic lists. The Presidential Address for 1891, Before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at the Washington meeting. By Georee Lincotn Cooneis MODS sh has Eee y At Natural History in Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. — v p- ‘ 3 , . NEW HAVEN: . | TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR, PRINTERS, ’ on \ : X : } 8 9 1 : ; A \ [FRoM THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, Vou. XLII, Octoper, 1891.] Art. XXVIL—Some of the Possibilities of Economic Botany; by GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE. [Presidential address delivered before the American Association for the Advyance- ment of Science, at Washington, August, 1891.] Our Association demands of its president, on his retirement from office, some account of matters connected with the department of science in which he is engaged. But you will naturally expect.that, before I enter upon the discharge of this duty, I should present a report respecting the mission with which you entrusted me last year. You desired me to attend the annual meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, and express your good. wishes for its success. Compliance with your request did not necessitate any material change in plans formed long ago to visit the South Seas; some of the dates and the sequence of places had to be modified; otherwise the early plans were fully carried out. I can assure you that it seemed very strange to reverse the seasons, and find mid-summer in January. But in the meeting with our brethren of the southern hemisphere, nothing else was reversed. The official welcome to your representative was as cordial, and the response by the members was as kindly as that which the people in the northern hemisphere would give to any fellow-worker coming from beyond the sea. The meeting to which I was commissioned was held in January last in the Cathedral city of Christchurch, New Zea- land, the seat of Canterbury College. 972 G. L. Goodale— Possibilities of Hconomic Botany. Considering the distance between the other colonies and New Zealand, the meeting was well attended. From Hobart, Tasmania, to the southern harbor, known as the Bluff, in New Zealand, the sea voyage is only a little short of one thousand miles of rough water. From Sydney in New South Wales to Auckland, New Zealand, it is over twelve hundred miles. If, therefore, one journeys from Adelaide in South Australia, to Christchurch, New Zealand, where the meeting was held he travels by land and by sea over two thousand miles. From Brisbane in Queensland, it is somewhat farther. Although certain concessions are made to the members of the Associa- tion, the fares by rail and by steamship are high, so that a journey from any one of the seats of learning in Australia proper to New Zealand is formidable on account of its cost. It is remarkable that so large a number of members should have met together under such circumstances, and it speaks well for the great strength and vigor of the Association. The Australasian Association is modelled rather more closely after the British Association than is our own. The president delivers his address upon his inauguration. There are no gen- eral business meetings, but all the details are attended to by an executive committee answering to our council; none except the members and associates are invited to attend even the sectional meetings and there are some other differences be- tween the three associations. The secretaries stated to me their conviction that their organization and methods are better adapted to their surroundings than ours would be, and all of their arguments seemed cogent. Although the Association has been in existence but three years, it has accomplished great good. It has brought together workers in different fields for conference and mutual benefit; it has diminished misunder- standings, and has strengthened friendships. In short it is doing the same kind of good work that we believe ours is now doing, and in much the same way. Your message was delivered at the general evening session immediately before the induction of the new officers. The retir- ing president, Baron von Mueller, and the incoming president Sir James Hector, in welcoming your representative, expressed their pleasure that you should have seen fit to send personal greetings. In replying to their welcome, I endeavored to convey your felicitations upon the pronounced success of the Association, and your best wishes for a prosperous future. In your name, I extended a cordial invitation to the members to gratify us by their presence at some of our annual meetings, and I have good reason to believe that this invitation will be accepted. I know it will be most thoroughly and hospitably honored by us. G. L. Goodale—Possibilities of Economic Botany. 2°73 On the morning of the session to which I refer, we received in the daily papers, a cable telegram relative to the Bering Sea difficulties (which were then in an acute stage). In your stead, I ventured to say, “In these days of disquieting dispatches, when there are rumors of trouble between Great Britain, and the United States, it is pleasant to think that ‘blood is thicker than water.’” This utterance was taken to mean that we are all English-speaking kinsmen, and even before I had finished, the old proverb was received with prolonged applause. The next meeting of the Australasian Association is to be held in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, under the presidency of the governor, Sir Robert Hamilton. The energetic secre- taries Professor Liversidge, Professor Hutton and Mr. Morton, promise a cordial welcome to any of our members visiting the Association. Should you accept the invitation, you will enjoy every feature of the remarkable island, Tasmania, where the meeting is to be held. You will be delighted by Tasmanian scenery, vegetation and climate, but that which will give you the greatest enjoyment in this as in other English South Sea colonies, is the fact that you are among English-speaking friends half way around the world. You will find that their efficient Association is devoted to the advancement of science and the promotion of sound learning. In short you will be made to feel at home. The subject which I have selected for the valedictory address deals with certain industrial, commercial and economic questions: nevertheless it lies wholly within the domain of botany. I invite you to examine with me some of the possi- bilities of economic botany. Of course, when treating a topic which is so largely specu- lative as this, it is difficult and unwise to draw a hard and fast line between possibilities and probabilities. Nowadays, possi- bilities are so often realized rapidly that they become accom- plished facts before we are aware. In asking what are the possibilities that other plants than those we now use may be utilized we enter upon a many-sided inquiry.’* Speculation is rife as to the coming man. May we not ask what plants the coming man will use ? There is an enormous disproportion between the total num- ber of species of plants known to botanical science and the number of those which are employed by man. The species of flowering plants already described and named are about one hundred and seven thousand. Acquisitions from unexplored or imperfectly explored regions may increase the * For references, notes, etc., see p. 300. 974 G. L. Goodale—Possibilities of Economic Botany. ageregate perhaps one-tenth, so that we are within very safe limits in taking the number of existing species to be somewhat above one hundred and ten thousand.’ Now if we should make a comprehensive list of all the flowering plants which are cultivated on what we may call a fairly large scale at the present day, placing therein all food’ and forage plants, all those which are grown for timber and cabinet woods, for fibres and cordage, for tanning materials, dyes, resins, rubber, gums, oils, perfumes and medicines, we could bring together barely three hundred species. It we should add to this short catalogue all the species, which with- out cultivation, can be used by man, we should find it consid- erably lengthened. A great many products of the classes just referred to are derived in commerce from wild plants, but exactly how much their addition would extend the list, it is impossible in the present state of knowledge to determine. Every enumeration of this character is likely to contain errors from two sources: first, it would be sure to contain some species which have outlived their real usefulness, and, secondly, owing to the chaotic condition of the literature of the subject, omissions would occur. : But after all proper exclusions and additions have been made, the total number of species of flowering plants utilized to any considerable extent by man in his civilized state does not exceed, in fact it does not quite reach, one per cent. The disproportion between the plants which are known and those which are used becomes much greater when we take into account the species of flowerless plants also. Of the five hundred ferns and their allies we employ for other than decorative purposes only five; the mosses and liverworts, roughly estimated at five hundred species, have only four which are directly used by man. There are comparatively few Algae, Fungi, or Lichens which have extended use. Therefore, when we take the flowering and flowerless to- gether, the percentage of utilized plants falls far below the estimate made for the flowering alone. Such a ratio between the number of species known and the number used justifies the inquiry which I have proposed for discussion at this time—namely, can the short list of useful plants be increased to advantage? If so, how ? This is a practical question ; it is likewise a very old one. In one form or another, by one people or another, it has been asked from early times. In the dawn of civilization, mankind inherited from savage ancestors certain plants, which had been found amenable to simple cultivation, and the products of these plants supplemented the spoils of the chase and of the sea. The question which we ask now was asked then. Wild G. L. Goodale— Possibilities of Economic Botany. 275 plants were examined for new uses; primitive agriculture and horticulture extended their bounds in answer to this inquiry. Age after age has added slowly and cautiously to the list of cultivable and utilizable plants, but the aggregate additions have been as we have seen, comparatively slight. The question has thus no charm of novelty, but it is as prac- tical to-day as in early ages In fact, at the present time, in view of all the appliances at the command of modern science and under the strong light cast by recent biological and tech- nological research, the inquiry which we propose assumes great importance. One phase of it is being attentively and syste- matically regarded in the great Experiment Stations, another phase is being studied in the laboratories of Chemistry and Pharmacy, while still another presents itself in the museums of Economic Botany. Our question may be put in other words, which are even more practical. What present likelihood is there that our tables may, one of these days, have other vegetables, fruits and cereals, than those which we use now? What chance is there that new fibers may supplement or even replace those which - we spin and weave, that woven fabrics may take on new veg- etable colors, that flowers and leaves may yield new perfumes and flavors? What probability is there that new remedial agents may be found among plants neglected or now wholly unknown? The answer which I shall attempt is not in the nature of a prophecy; it can claim no rank higher than that of a reasonable conjecture. At the outset it must be said that synthetic chemistry has made and is making some exceedingly short cuts across this field of research, giving us artificial dyes, odors, flavors, and medicinal substances. of such excellence that it sometimes seems as if before long the old-fashioned chemical processes in the plant itself would play only asubordinate part. But although there is no telling where the triumphs of chemical synthesis will end, it is not probable that it will ever interfere essentially with certain classes of economic plants. It is impossible to conceive of a synthetic fiber or a synthetic fruit. Chemistry gives us fruit-ethers and fruit-acids, and after a while may pro- vide us with a true artificial sugar and amorphous starch ; but artificial fruits worth the eating or artificial fibers worth the spinning are not coming in our day. Despite the extraordinary achievements of synthetic chemis- try, the world must be content to accept for a long time to come, the results of the intelligent labor of the cultivator of the soil and the explorer of the forest. Improvement of the good plants we now utilize, and the discovery of new ones must remain the care of large numbers of diligent students 276 G. L. Goodale— Possibilities of Economic Botany. and assiduous workmen. So that, in fact, our question resolves itself into this: can these practical investigators hope to make any substantial advance ? It will be well to glance first at the manner in which our wild and cultivated plants have been singled out for use. We shall, in the case of each class, allude to the methods by which the selected plants have been improved, or their products fully utilized. Thus looking the ground over, although not minutely, we can see what new plants are likely to be added to our list. Our illustrations can, at the best, be only fragmen- tary. We shall not have time to treat the different divisions of the subject in precisely the proportions which would be de- manded by an exhaustive essay ; an address on an occasion like this must pass lightly over some matters which other oppor- tunities for discussion could properly examine with great ful- ness. Unfortunately, some of the minor topics which must be thus passed by, possess considerable popular interest; one of these is the first subordinate question introductory to our task, namely, how were our useful cultivated and wild plants se- lected for use ? A study of the early history of plants employed for cere- monial purposes, in religious solemnities, in incantations, and for medicinal uses, shows how slender has sometimes been the claim of certain plants to the possession of any real utility. But some of the plants which have been brought to notice in these ways have afterwards been found to be utilizable in some fashion or other. This is often seen in the cases of the plants which have been suggested for medicinal use through the absurd doctrine of signatures.* It seems clear that, except in modern times, useful plants have been selected almost wholly by chance, and it may well be said that a selection by accident is no selection at all. Now- adays, the new selections are based on analogy. One of the most striking illustrations of the modern method is afforded by the utilization of bamboo fiber for electric lamps. Some of the classes of useful plants must be passed by with- out present discussion; others alluded to slightly, while still other groups fairly representative of selection and improve- ment will be more fully described. In this latter class would naturally come, of course, the food-plants known as I. Turn CEREALS. Let us look first at these. The species of grasses which yield these seed-like fruits, or as we might call them for our purpose seeds, are numerous ; twenty of them are cultivated largely in the Old World, but G. L. Goodale—Possibilities of Economic Botany. 277 only six of them are likely to be very familiar to you, namely, wheat, rice, barley, oats, rye and maize. The last of these is of American origin, despite doubts which have been east upon it. It was not known in the Old World until after the discovery of the New. It has probably been very long in cultivation. The others all belong to the Old World. Wheat and barley have been cultivated from the earliest times; according to De Candolle, the chief authority in these matters, about four thousand years. Later came rye and oats, both of which have been known in cultivation for at least two thousand years. Even the shorter of these periods gives time enough for wide variation, and as is to be expected there are numerous varieties of them all. For instance, Vilmorin, in 1880, figured sixty-six varieties of wheat with plainly distinguishable characters.’ If the Chinese records are to be trusted, rice has been culti- vated tor a period much longer than that assigned by our history and traditions to the other cereals, and the varieties are correspondingly numerous. It is said that in Japan above three hundred varieties are grown on irrigated lands, and more than one hundred on uplands.* With the possible exception of rice, not one of the species of cereals is certainly known in the wild state.’ Now and then specimens have been gathered in the East which can be re- ferred to the probable types from which our varieties have sprung, but doubt has been thrown upon everyone of these eases. It has been shown conclusively that it is easy fora plant to escape from cultivation and persist in its new home even for a long time in a near approximation to cultivated form. Hence, we are forced to receive all statements regarding the wild forms with caution. But it may be safely said that if all the varieties of cereals which we now cultivate were to be swept out of existence, we could hardly know where to turn for wild species with which to begin again. We could not know with certainty. ; To bring this fact a little more vividly to our minds, let us suppose a case. Let us imagine that a blight without parallel has brought to extinction all the forms of wheat, rice, rye, oats, barley and maize, now in cultivation, but without affect- ing the other grasses or any other form of vegetable food. Mankind would be obliged to subsist upon the other kindly fruits of the earth; upon root-crops, tubers, leguminous seeds, and soon. Some of the substitutions might be amusing in any other time than that of a threatened famine. Others would be far from appetizing under any condition, and only a few would be wholly satisfying even to the most pronounced vegetarian. Tn short, it would seem, from the first, that the cereals fill a place occupied by no other plants. The composition of the grains 278 G. L. Goodale— Possibilities of Economic Botany. is theoretically and practically almost perfect as regards food ratio between the nitrogenous matters and the starch group 5 and the food value, as it is termed, is high. But aside from these considerations, it would be seen that for safety of preser- vation through considerable periods, and for convenience of transportation, the cereals take highest rank. Pressure would come from every side to compel us to find equivalents for the lost grains. From this predicament I believe that the well- equipped Experiment Stations and the Agricultural Depart- ments in Europe and America would by and by extricate us. Continuing this hypothetical case, let us next inquire how the Stations would probably go to work in the up-hill task of making partially good a well-nigh irreparable loss. The whole group of relatives of the lost cereals would be passed in strict review. Size of grain, strength and vigor and plasticity of stock, adaptability to different surroundings, and flexibility in variation would be examined with scrupulous care. But the range of experiment would, under the cireum- stances, extend far beyond the relatives of our present cereals. It would embrace an examination of the other grasses which are even now cultivated for their grains, but which are so little known outside of their own limit, that it is a surprise to hear about them. For example, the Millets, great and small, would be investigated. These grains, so little known here, form an important crop in certain parts of the east. One of the leading authorities on the subject® states that the Millets constitute “a more important crop” in India “than either Rice or Wheat, and are grown more extensively, being raised from Madras in the south to Rajputana in the north. They occupy about eighty- three per cent of the food-grain area in Bombay and Sinde, forty-one per cent in the Punjab, thirty-nine per cent in the ~ Central Provinces,” “in all about thirty million acres.” Having chosen proper subjects for experimenting, the culti- vators would make use of certain well-known principles. By simple selection of the more desirable seeds, strains would be secured to suit definite wants, and these strains would be kept as races, or attempts would be made to intensify wished-for characters. By skillful hybridizing of the first, second and higher orders, tendencies to wider variation would be obtained and the process of selection considerably expedited.” It is out of our power to predict how much time would elapse before satisfactory substitutes for our cereals could be found. In the improvement of the grains of grasses other than those which have been very long under cultivation, experi- ments have been few, scattered and indecisive. Therefore we are as badly off for time-ratios as are the geologists and archeeologists, in their statements of elapsed periods. It is G. L. Goodale— Possibilities of Economic Botany. 279 impossible for us to ignore the fact that there appear to be occasions in the life of a species when it seems to be peculiarly susceptible to the influences of its surroundings.”