208 THE PLANT WORLD. 



OUTLINE STUDY OF SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS. 



By Dr. C. Stuart Gager, 



Nczv York Botanical Garden. 



The following paragraphs were written for the use of the 

 grade teachers in a city where school gardens had been intro- 

 duced, and the work here outlined was correlated with the out- 

 of-door work in the garden. The studies are only a suggestion 

 as to the kind of work essential to secure the most desirable re- 

 sults from the work in the garden. 



It is a great pity that so much school botany formerly consid- 

 ered the plant apart from the soil and air in which it grew. It 

 were as great a pity to cultivate plants in the school garden with- 

 out studying the elementary facts of physiology and ecology 

 which are necessary to their intelligent care. 



To make a successful garden one must know that the plants 

 need to be a certain distance apart. But if the object of the 

 school garden work is something more than merely to train gar- 

 deners, if it is to have sufficient educational value to justify the 

 time it takes, then it becomes vitally important for the pupil to 

 know why the plants must be a certain distance apart — to under- 

 stand the fundamental needs and nature of the plant that make 

 necessary all that he does in his garden. 



While nature study is not a science, and while a course in na- 

 ture study is non-scientific, it should never be unscientific in either 

 its content or its method. Especially should the pupil begin here 

 to acquire a scientific habit of thought and work. This aim is not 

 antagonistic to the acquisition of a love of and sympathy with 

 nature. Both objects should be attained if the subject is to jus- 

 tify its place in the course of study. 



The surest foundation for the teacher, so far as plants are con- 

 cerned, lies in a clear understanding of the principles of botany. 

 The best preparation for teaching nature study is, not to have 

 " taken " nature study one's self, but to have had thorough intro- 

 ductory laboratory courses in botany and zoology. 



