PLACE OF BOTANY IN EDUCATION 27 



The precise educational value of the Sciences will be 

 considered in the next chapter. Botany is but one of 

 several of them, and they differ less from one another 

 than they as a whole differ from other subjects. From 

 our present point of view they are, Physics and Chem- 

 istry, largely experimental in their nature, Zoology and 

 Botany, largely observational, and Geology and Physical 

 Geography, requiring macroscopic observation and gen- 

 eralization. Astronomy and Human Physiology are of 

 much less importance, since practically it is difficult to 

 bring students into actual contact with their phenomena ; 

 and Experimental Psychology is excluded because of its 

 unorganized state at present, and its recondite nature. 

 Since the three first-mentioned groups thus differ some- 

 what in the training they give, it will be best for the 

 school to offer at least one from each group. If but two 

 can be had, they should be from the first two groups ; if 

 but one, then it may best be from the first, preferably 

 Physics. Those of the first group are most expensive 

 for equipment, those of the second, next, and of the 

 third, least. As to the second group, for training it 

 matters not in the least whether one studies the fixed 

 and food-making Plants or the locomotive and food- 

 destroying Animals, for these differences are insignifi- 

 cant as compared with the resemblances between them 

 as living organisms. Zoology has some advantages ; the 

 structure of Animals is far more sharply differentiated 

 than of Plants, and throws great light upon the structure 



