60 THE PLANT WOKLD 



Book Reviews. 



Nature Study and the Child. By Charles B. Scott, A. M. Cloth. 618 

 Pages. Price, $1.50. D. C. Heath & Co., Publishers. Boston. 

 Since the reaction which set in some years ago against the idea that 



the three R's constituted the essentials of an elementary education was 

 followed by the introduction of Nature Study, two absurd extremes have 

 been reached by different classes of enthusiasts who have taken up the 

 work. The ultra scientific have tried to introduce in the lower grades 

 the methods adapted to college students, while extremists of another 

 sort have substituted fairy tales and legends regarding plants, animals 

 and other phases of nature. As usual, the proper method lies between 

 these extremes. Prof. Scott, with an evident appreciation of the true 

 ends and aims of Nature Study, has given a comprehensive review of the 

 whole matter which should prove very helpful to every earnest and intel- 

 ligent teacher. It should not be necessary at present to bring forth 

 proofs and arguments to show that Nature Study fills a want in the 

 development of the child that cannot be filled by any other study. The 

 development of the child represents in epitome the development of the 

 race, and as the race in its primitive condition was compelled to contend 

 with nature and become familiar with her ways by careful observation, 

 so the child seems to instinctively feel its close relation to natural objects 

 and usually evinces at an early age an interest in plants and animals. 



This early tendency is, however, too often repressed rather than 

 fostered by parents and teachers. This book should tend to advance 

 the cause of Nature Study, and should be in the hands of all teachers. 

 "What benefit they may derive from it, and whatever success they may 

 have in their teaching, will depend, however, largely upon their own 

 training and love of nature, without which the highest success in this 

 work will be unattainable. C. L. S. 



