82 THE TEACHING BOTANIST 



whitewood or pine, each on four solid legs, oiled but not 

 varnished on top, thirty inches high (lower for schools), 

 and eight feet long by three feet wide. 1 It is well to 

 have black lines ruled to mark off the territory for which 

 each of the five students is to be held responsible. 

 Plain chairs with rubber caps on the feet are good, 

 though revolving chairs have advantages. At least four 

 feet should be left between each table to allow each 

 student abundant room, and to permit the teacher to 

 pass easily among them. Shallow drawers may be made 

 in the tables, but if many divisions of students use the 

 same tables, these will be insufficient and may as well be 

 omitted in favor of lockers and drawers built elsewhere 

 in the room in sufficient number to allow one to each 

 student. For elementary students a drawer eighteen by 

 twelve inches is ample, but each student should have one 

 to himself for his tools, note-books, etc. Stone jars 

 under each table for waste materials are desirable. 



Of other furniture, I would place next a Wardian 

 case, or miniature greenhouse, in which plants may be 

 kept alive while under observation or experiment. In 

 fact, not much physiological work is possible without 

 something of this kind, for the dryness, gases, and 

 other disturbances of an open schoolroom produce 

 abnormal results, and often no results at all. The 



1 In-tailed descriptions and figures of various forms of laboratory tables 

 may be found in the Journal ,>/ Applied Microscopy (Rochester, N.Y.), 

 for April, 1899. 



