THE PI.ANT WORI.D 269 



Editorial. 



We have recently received a very inspiring account of a piece of edu- 

 cational work accomplished in a Maine village that may well be taken as 

 a model in thousands of similar towns throughout the length and breadth of 

 this country. Some five years ago, Mr. George Robley Howe, of Norway, 

 Maine, a man of sterling worth and liberal attainments, noting, as others 

 must have observed in similar environment, the aimless, not to say vicious, 

 tendencies of the average village boys, sought to interest them in better 

 things. He began with nine boys, then about an average age of 10 years, 

 going direct to nature " ; to use his own language, ' ' eschewing all dictation 

 of their personal faults, and leaving them to practically find their own way 

 to the higher discipline of character, I merely undertook to occupy their 

 thoughts more and more with the unimpeachable facts of nature. Grad- 

 ually they were led to construct, without much teaching, a classification 

 of all the fauna and flora of Oxford County, through the kingdoms, 

 divisions, classes, groups, and orders ; to name them in the terminology 

 of modern science, and to correctly refer their specimens, culled from hill- 

 side and valley, from stream and lake and forest, to this scheme." Since 

 that time the group has grown until it includes fifty-eight boys, or more 

 than half of the boys of the village between the ages of 10 and 17 years. 

 During the time not a single defection has occurred, and that the move- 

 ment has been productive of lasting good is beyond question. The boys 

 make excursions once or twice a week, these often leading them many 

 miles from home, and they return laden with the interesting things 

 they have found. This model organization has already attracted the 

 attention of outside scientists, and it will probably not be long before the 

 trained body of accurate observers has begun to make itself felt far beyond 

 the confines of their native village. We wish them all possible good 

 luck, and urge our readers, when opportunity presents, to inaugurate a 

 similar crusade. 



We desire to call the attention, not only of our readers, but of the 

 public generally, to the article by Dr. D. T. MacDougal, of the New 

 York Botanical Garden, published in this issue. It will be remembered 

 that the Carnegie Institution last year set aside the sum of $8,000 for the 

 establishment of a botanical laboratory in the desert region of the South- 

 west, at which the many problems of plant growth in that region could 

 be studied under the most favorable conditions. Mr. Frederick V. 

 Coville and Dr. MacDougal were given charge of the arrangements for 

 the laboratory, and after careful examination selected what seems to be 

 an ideal site near the city of Tucson, in Arizona. Within a few months 

 the laboratory will be extending its facilities to students. 



