i895. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 167 



of which have, to a greater or less degree, lost their power of flight, 

 owing to the influence of their environment. 



Botany and the Science and Art Department. 



In the August number of Natural Science we referred to a 

 complaint against the method of testing candidates for the South 

 Kensington Examinations in practical botany in the elementary and 

 more especially in the advanced stage. We are inclined to take a 

 wider view of the question and ask if the Department has selected 

 the best means of awarding the grant placed by Government at its 

 disposal for the encouragement and aid of scientific teaching. 



Without a doubt there are numbers of men and women, younger 

 and older, who, while anxious to get a knowledge of the various 

 sciences, are quite unable to pay fees which would adequately 

 remunerate any teacher capable of acting as a trustworthy guide. 

 In some cases the student is anxious only to improve his own position 

 by accumulating the certificates of the Department ; he may want to 

 earn the right to become in turn a teacher of the subject. The 

 ■elementary school teacher is a case in point. But there are many 

 who take up a science purely from love of it and a desire to know 

 something about the rocks and stones, the plants and animals, which 

 are to be found outside the busy town in which they are doomed to 

 spend the best part of their lives. And these are at least as deserving 

 of encouragement. Given, then, that there are students asking for 

 knowledge, and on the other hand a Government Department charged 

 with the duty of helping them to that knowledge, the question arises 

 as to whether the means at present adopted is the best and only 

 means. 



Quite recently a new step was taken by Government in 

 appointing a number of inspectors, who were to visit the different 

 classes and, presumably, to see that proper instruction was given. 

 But, if the inspectors' report counts for nothing in the partition of the 

 grant, and the latter still depends solely on examination results, why 

 go to the additional expense of an increased staff ? Obviously, if the 

 instruction given falls below the standard, the students will fail in 

 their examination, and no other test is needed. Perhaps exami- 

 nations are a necessary evil ; but it strikes one that some account 

 might also be taken of work actually done by the students, especially 

 of practical work, which sadly needs encouragement, though it is far 

 and away the most valuable. Let the Department provide note- 

 books in which the student shall each evening enter the result or 

 some account of his work on actual specimens with illustrative 

 sketches. These could be looked through and reported on by the 

 inspector, and count towards the earning of a grant in which a final 

 examination at the end of the course might, if necessary, share. 



Failing to pass, or inability to sit for, the examination should not 



