1908] Meeting of Botanical Branch. 221 



was to secure from those present their opinions as to the best 

 methods to pursue. Nature Study work will begin as soon as 

 a child leaves the kindergarten and enters the Public School 

 proper, and it was important that at the very beginning instruc- 

 tion should be on lines that would be followed as the child ad- 

 vanced from grade to grade. A great variety of opinions ^ 

 was expressed by those present, some being of the opinion that 

 all Nature Study teaching should have a practical side,, while 

 others considered its more important function to be the train- 

 ing and development of the child's natural powers of observation 

 without special attention being paid to the practical applica- 

 tion of what was taught. There was a difference of opinion, 

 also, as to whether Nature Study should not form part of the 

 Natural Science Course, one or two thinking that the two 

 should be kept quite distinct, the Nature Study work being 

 kept as non-technical as possible; but the general feeling was 

 that while all Nature Study work was not scientific, all Natural 

 Science studies were really part of Nature Study as it should 

 be taught in the schools. Lists of the best seeds of flowers, 

 trees and shrubs to be used for illustrating the mysteries of 

 germination; lists of shrubs and trees from which the buds 

 most suitable for Nature vStudy instruction could be procured 

 and lists of plants to be studied in the Spring and Autumn 

 were submitted and discussed. 



J. M. M. 



COUNCIL MEETING. 



A meeting of the Council was held on January 6th in the 

 Normal School with the President, Mr. W. J. Wilson, in the 

 chair. Members present were: Messrs. A. E. Attwood, A. H. 

 Gallup, J. W. Baldwin, A. Gibson, E. E. Lemieux, and T. E. 

 Clarke; Miss Q. Jackson and Miss A. L. Matthews. 



The following were elected ordinary members: Messrs. 

 Hiram Robinson, Morley E. Wilson, and J. P. Finn, B.A. 



The President informed the Council that the room in the 

 Normal School which the Club had been privileged to use as 

 a library would no longer be available since it had been found 

 necessary to make use of it for school purposes. A committee 

 consisting of Dr. Jas. Fletcher, Dr. H. M. Ami and Mr. A. H. 

 Gallup was appointed to see if a suitable room could be secured 

 elsewhere. 



