I3O THE TEACHING BOTANIST 



Botany." Some of the text-books to be mentioned 

 below, notably Strasburger's and Vines's, give good sy- 

 nopses of the groups, as do also Atkinson's and Barnes's 

 works. For an account of the groups from the ecologi- 

 cal and evolutionary standpoint, there is an admirable 

 little work, entitled " Evolution of Plants," by Camp- 

 bell, which every school library should possess, and 

 which should be well read in connection with any 

 school course treating the natural history of plants. 



A group of books which from some points of view 

 may be considered as text-books, but which I think 

 rather should be viewed as books of reference, are the 

 laboratory guides. These are books giving full labora- 

 tory directions for the practical working out of impor- 

 tant topics, and the student is supposed to have them 

 open before him as he works. The great objection to 

 them as a class is that they necessarily presuppose 

 certain materials, and these it is by no means easy to 

 provide ; and the restriction they impose upon a good 

 teacher is unbearable. On the other hand, as sugges- 

 tions for the construction of guides by the teacher 

 for his own class, they have much value, and it is 

 chiefly for this purpose the guides in Part II of this 

 book are offered. Of the laboratory guides, one of 

 the most recent and excellent is Spalding's " Intro- 

 duction to Botany," which, however, gives no attention 

 to practical physiology, though it has excellent summary 

 chapters containing much ecology. Another is Setch- 



