BIOLOGICAL WORK IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 6^7 



lower ones have been previously studied. On this point B. Fink, 

 writing in Science, says : * " I wish to enter a protest against the 

 method of teaching botany still in vogue in certain colleges and 

 high schools ; . . . the old plan of a spring term in botany con- 

 fined to a study of phanerogams, followed by the analysis of 

 from fifty to one hundred plants. This way of studying botany 

 came into use when the microscope was scarcely known among 

 the masses, and when the economic interest of the lower orders of , 

 vegetable life was not well understood. . . . Instead of the old 

 plan, I would have all schools during the first term take up the 

 orders, ijroceeding from the lowest to the highest, and close the 

 work with the leading facts of vegetable physiology. I would 

 divide the time equally between cryptogams, phanerogams, and 

 physiology. This both gives the best foundation on which to 

 build, and is the most essential knowledge for the student who 

 can not give more time to the subject." President Coulter gives 

 as his opinion the following : f "It is more satisfactory and 

 scientific to begin with the study of the simplest forms, not 

 merely because they are far easier to understand, but also because 

 this order of study will give some notion of the evolution of the 

 plant kingdom. The many advantages of this order of study 

 advantages which have been seen in much experience should 

 outweigh any supposed advantage in beginning with the study of 

 the most comj^lex plants. In my own experience both methods 

 have been tried, and in beginning with flowering plants and then 

 afterward approaching them from the lower forms, I have invari- 

 ably found that previous wrong conceptions of the higher forms 

 had to be corrected. J thoroughly believe that no proper notion 

 of higher groups can be obtained without previous study of the 

 lower ones." Prof. Campbell, of Stanford University, advocates 

 strongly following Nature's order in plant study, of which fact 

 his excellent text-book is the best evidence. In response to in- 

 quiry on this point, he writes : " I have never had any serious 

 trouble, even with quite young students, in beginning with 

 the protophytes. One advantage in beginning with microscopic 

 work is that it requires an amount of concentration upon a single 

 object that is very valuable in forcing the student to observe ac- 

 curately, especially when he is obliged to draw carefully what he 

 has seen." 



Plant physiology ought to receive more attention than it now 

 does. To study the structure of an organ without considering its 

 use is of little value. In fact, the chief object of morphological 

 work should be to furnish a basis for physiological and system- 

 atic work. Enough time should be spent upon classification to 



* Science, October 20, 1893, p. 217. f School Review, March, 1893, p. 148. 



