53 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



that invariably goes on by tlie weaker students. When one is 

 sure of the name of his species, it is often surprising how 

 rapidly the information diffuses through the class. One way 

 to overcome this is to require the name of the given flower, 

 when found, to be written down on a slip of paper and handed 

 in, and the slips not corrected until the end of the period. In 

 this way the pupil is taught to rely on himself and if he is 

 marked according to his work, he may be induced to become 

 an independent student. 



But the teacher's work is only half done if the pupil is left 

 with a slavish dependence upon either key or index. He 

 should early be taught to recognize plant relationships. Many 

 of these he has recognized without a botany — the violets, um- 

 belifers, and composites, for instance — and he should soon be 

 able to recognize with equal ease, the crucifers, legumes, lilies, 

 borageworts, roseworts, mints and many others. It is not ex- 

 pected that he will keep the characteristics of the small families 

 in mind, but he ought to have a sufficient knowledge of plant- 

 relationships to perceive the great families to which they are 

 allied. 



Lastly a good manual is essential to a first class course. 

 No pupil should be encouraged to neglect the weeds and other 

 plants with inconspicuous blooms by giving him a book con- 

 taining only the showy flowers. He needs a book that he can 

 depend upon, one that he knows contains his plant which may 

 be run down by a careful search. How discouraging it is, 

 after a long and honest efl^ort, to be told that his species is not 

 in the book, next time he will doubtless draw this conclusion 

 at the first indication of difficulty. By the use of a complete 

 manual, and a sensible course, he may be turned out an intelli- 

 gent botanist instead of a mere repository of latin terms that 

 will be forgotten as soon as exhool is out. 



