OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 395 



about it, and that neither classification nor physiology shall be 

 touched upon, except so far as the senses of the pupil can, without 

 artificial assistance, check or corroborate the words of the teacher. 

 It is not, of course, meant to exclude from any portion of the 

 school course readings or lessons about natural objects. Stories 

 of lions and tigers, and the like, are capital reading, being both 

 intelligible and interesting. But they afford no scientific culture. 

 A sufficient hand-book of Botany might perhaps be drawn up 

 on the following principles: — The plants, indigenous or introduced, 

 which are most generally distributed over New South Wales, and 

 are most prominently notable for size, beauty, economic value, 

 poisonous or medicinal properties, oddity of appearance, or other 

 peculiarity, should alone be admitted. Those selected should be 

 described with the utmost possible preciseness and accuracy, but 

 in the vernacular and not the botanical dialect, except where the 

 technical term is absolutely necessary. Thus we should not 

 speak of racemes, corymbs, panicles, or cymes ; still less should 

 we use such terms as monoehlamydeous, monocotyledonous, 

 diceceous, hermaphrodite, or hypogynous. But we should adopt, 

 of necessity, the words calyx, corolla, stamen, anther, and the 

 like. No lesson should ever be given without a specimen before 

 the eyes of the class, or immediately accessible, and consequently 

 no systematic order of lessons is possible, but each must occupy 

 a separate and independent position It will often be necessary, 

 for want of specific knowledge, that the teacher should take 

 generic forms, as in the case of Eucalyptus, Acacia, Gasuarina, 

 Orders, as in Seaweeds and Mosses, or even Alliances, as in the 

 Fungi. But, whenever possible, a single, true, well-known, and 

 easily recognised species {e.g., Passiflora edulis), should be 

 selected as the subject. In the plants which have varied to a 

 large extent under cultivation (e. g., Brassica oleraceob), attention 

 should be drawn to as many different, but familiar, forms as 

 possible. The selected plants would be somewhat as follows : — 

 Maize, wheat, barley, and oats, millet, &c, to represent the 

 Grasses ; the potato, tobacco, and tomato for the Solanacece ; the 

 apple, pear, or quince for the Pomece; and the apricot, plum, 



