122 THE PLANT WORLD. 



omy, had become imbued with the natural history spirit and were 

 anxious to continue work along those lines and to become teachers of 

 biology in high schools and colleges. Man}^ who came with no knowl- 

 edge of morphology as such, none of histology and embryology, and 

 none of microscopic technique, but who knew a few species and knew 

 how to determine others, were nevertheless full of the spirit of the 

 naturalist, anxious to continue their natural history studies, and to in- 

 clude work more truly morphological. These, together with the stu- 

 dents fresh from the fields, were the students who constituted the back- 

 bone of the classes in biology, who were active, useful members in the 

 students' natural history club. They were the ones who were always 

 ready for a tramp into the woods and fields, who saw things when they 

 got there, and who could talk or ask questions intelligently about what 

 they saw. And they are the ones who have become teachers of biol- 

 ogy themselves, many of them in high schools, others in state normals 

 and colleges. 



It is not contended for a moment that the purpose of biological 

 teaching in the high schools or even in the colleges is, primarily, to 

 make naturalists. But it certainly should not kill off every embryo 

 naturalist who veniures into the classes in biology. It should be such 

 as will imbue him with the true scientific spirit and acquaint him with 

 the methods of science. He will then know the value of personal in- 

 vestigation and be able to judge the value of the testimony of others. 



Many things in this world must be taken on faith, but the faith 

 need not be unreasoning and blind. Whole animals and plants, alive 

 and active, are the objects which will continue to appeal to us after we 

 leave the schools. Questions of adaptation to environment, of geo- 

 graphic distribution, variation, and the like, are the ones which will 

 continue to interest most intelligent people. The ability to consider 

 these questions necessarily requires a knowledge of species. The stu- 

 dent of biology who does not know species, it seems to me, must be 

 greatly handicapped. 



Some persons who know no systematic zoology or botany seem to 

 think that the systematist needs to know nothing about the anatomy 

 of the specimens with which he works, — that he knows no morphol- 

 ogy, or at least makes no use of morphological facts. The ludicrous 

 blunders such people make when, in an unguarded moment, they at- 

 tempt to deal with species, show how erroneous their conceptions are. 



When nature study in the grades and biological teaching in the high 

 schools are carried on in the proper way, our students, when they become 

 men and women, will not become, as so many now are, a prey to every 

 fraud that comes along. From nature they will learn the value of truth 

 and the certaint}' of the punishment of those who trifle with truth. 



