86 Rhodora [April 



tion is no longer the chief end in view. Much more attention is 

 devoted to the vital aspects of plant-life, and the different phases of 

 this broad subject are developed largely by laboratory exercises in 

 which the pupil is led to observe for himself. 



The superiority of these more recent methods cannot be questioned. 

 In any such change, however, there is a natural tendency to go too 

 far, and in the enthusiasm of a good movement to pass somewhat 

 beyond the bounds of expediency. The new methods of instructing 

 by practical exercises and laboratory experiments, although far more 

 effective, are much slower than the old one of memorizing. They 

 require much more equipment and better teachers. It thus happens 

 that recent text-books prepared as they have been with the highest 

 ideals and very largely by university professors, have in most instances 

 proved too comprehensive and difficult for practical application in 

 secondary schools. Furthermore, it has been found that the results 

 of the newer teaching in its more extreme form, are not altogether 

 satisfactory, and that the old-fashioned study of plant members is to 

 some extent a requisite for intelligent work in physiology, histology, 

 and ecology. 



Mr. Leavitt has combined in his Outlines the best features of the 

 new methods of presentation while retaining what is most important 

 in the old. Moreover, he has presented the whole with remarkable 

 conciseness and clearness. With personal experience in high-school 

 work he has treated his subject in full sympathy with the ambitions 

 and limitations of high school instruction. 



Many of the unexcelled illustrations of Isaac Sprague have been 

 wisely retained from the Lessons, but these are supplemented through- 

 out the book by many new and excellent text-figures by Messrs. C. 

 E. Faxon and F. Schuyler Mathews. 



Vol. 4, no.jg, including f ages 43 to 64, -was issued 6 March, igo2. 



