THE TEACHING BOTANIST 



In ecology, since the study is in the laboratory, and not 

 out of doors (as it would much better be), the students can do 

 little better than guess at the use of the different appendages. 

 They can, however, be much helped by recalling facts already 

 known by observation, as to the carrying of maple, willow, and 

 other seeds and fruits by wind, and the sticking of seeds to 

 their clothes in their walks through pastures, and also by some 

 simple experiments, suggested by the teacher, upon the differ- 

 ent seeds in the laboratory. This work will give them an 

 introduction to theorizing- -a habit of the greatest value in 

 biology if kept checked by rigid observation or other confir- 

 mation, and of the greatest disaster if allowed to become 

 merely untested guessing. In this case, since confirmation 

 from outdoor observation is impracticable, the correctness of 

 their theories will need to be tested by reference to the teacher, 

 who should be thoroughly informed upon the subject ; but it 

 should be made plain that the teacher's knowledge is not 

 better than their own observation, but only a substitute en- 

 forced by circumstances. 



In Exercise 8 (a] the students will think of wind, animals, 

 and probably water- currents, to which hints from the teacher 

 may cause them to add throwing by spring- apparatus, which 

 include all of importance. 



In their drawings the important locomotive appendages 

 should be clearly brought out ; for example, in the Burdock, 

 half of the students will not represent the hooked tips, though 

 they are plainly visible ; in such cases they should individually 

 be told they have missed something important, and left to seek 

 until they have found and correctly represented it. 



A fully illustrated account of this very important subject of 

 seed locomotion, one of the most interesting of all botanical 

 topics to most people, should be given in a talk or lecture. 



