bbsseyJ FIELD WOLK IN BOTANY 15 



This is not a difficult question to answer in the case of the smaller 

 high schools where the classes in botany number not more than 

 twenty-five to thirty, for here the teacher can easily plan enjoyable 

 and profitable Saturday trips with the whole class. Sometimes a trip 

 of a couple of hours in the late afternoon may accomplish much, if 

 the direction has been well chosen. It is essential that if the teacher 

 undertakes this out-of-door class work he should know his ground 

 thoroughly, so that his class may not be disappointed in the results. 

 I warn all teachers who have never conducted classes in field botany 

 that previous preparation is just as necessary here as it is in the work 

 indoors. 



For such work the class will need a number of tin collecting boxes 

 of the regulation pattern, pocket-lenses for the closer examination of 

 specimens, a number of plant-presses, and a supply of drying paper. 

 In the field an abundance of specimens of many kinds of plants should 

 be collected and examined with some care, then after they are brought 

 back to the laboratory they must be put carefully into the presses, 

 after proper labeling. Such field work, if made to include lower as 

 well as higher plants, will be very helpful to those pupils who have 

 never had any practice in it in the grades, and will go far towards 

 remedying this defect in their education. In the hands of some teach- 

 ers, those who love the out-of-doors life, such work may be made very 

 enjoyable also, and much interest and enthusiasm may be aroused. 



But when I am asked to suggest field work for the larger high 

 schools, where the classes number from one hundred to two hun- 

 dred, or even more, I have to confess that I do so with many mis- 

 givings. They are always in large towns or cities, and where the 

 distance to the open country and the woodlands is several miles at 

 the least. It is impossible, also, to care for such large numbers. 

 To divide a class of two hundred into sections small enough to han- 

 dle would require the whole time of several teachers, and of course 

 that is out of the question. The fact is that the field work should have 

 been done in the grade schools, where the classes are smaller, and it 

 is not right that the high-school teacher should be asked to take it 

 up. But if the teacher in the large high-school must include some 

 field work, he should break up his class into as small sections as 

 possible, and take these into the city parks, out into the country, 

 and where possible into the natural woodlands. He should show 

 his pupils how to collect in such trips, and he should then select 

 some of the older and more trustworthy and helpful pupils of pre- 



