Abstract
IF we cast our minds back on the general attitude adopted towards botany in the latter part of the eighteenth century, we cannot but be struck by the almost apologetic phraseology of its votaries and the curious grounds upon which they rationalized its pursuit. Rousseau, for example, described botany as a study of pure curiosity that has no other real use than that which a thinking, sensible being may deduce from the observation of Nature and the wonders of the universe. I venture to think that many otherwise educated people to-day would express similar sentiments, though in more modern and probably less complimentary language.
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Salisbury, E. Modern Study of Plants in Relation to Education*. Nature 140, 669–671 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140669a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140669a0