48 THE PLANT WORLD. 



A report card recently sent to the father of a pupil in one of 

 the New York City hi^h schools was returned to the teacher with 

 this comment on the hack : " I fail to see how the circulation of 

 the blood in the tail of the tadpole has anythino^ to do with the 

 formation of character." 



^^'hich is the greater need in a "practical" age and a "prac- 

 tical '■ communit\- ; to teach that only that is practical which 

 brings quick and large financial returns, or to dispel in the rising 

 greneration such ignorance and narrowness of view as is illus- 

 trated in the instance above cited? 



It is argued that the pupils are not interested in botany. ^lany, 

 if not most pupils, are not interested in algebra. Shall we, 

 therefore, teach less quadratic ec[uations, and more mechanical 

 draughting ? 



We do not mean that high schools should teach nothing useful. 

 There is no objection to teaching in the high school the economic 

 uses of plants, if the pupil is already grounded in the principles 

 of botan>-. Something of this nature ma}' very properly be 

 included in an elementary course, but not if fundamental prin- 

 ciples and scientific habits of thought and work must be sacrificed. 



The value of the service which the high school can render to 

 the State must be measured by the increased number of citizens 

 who can api^reciate the value of a liberal education for its own 

 sake, and who can see how even the study of the circulation of 

 the blood in the tail of a tadpole, or of photosynthesis and cross- 

 pollination can make for character and good citizenship. 



Botany can never hope to reach and maintain the position 

 which language and mathematics now enjoy in the scheme of 

 education if it is willing to acknowledge that its chief value lies 

 in a certain amount of information it can confer about the 

 economic uses of plants, and that as an educational discipline it 

 has too few claims to entitle it to a position in the course of study. 



C. S. G. 



We have received ( February 7 ) from a botanist in Lakehurst. 

 N. J., a fresh specimen of pyxie { Fyxidaiifliera harhulata) in 

 flower. The tinv white blossom of this " flowering moss," as it is 

 also called, is scheduled to arrive in April. 



