I^^SCHOOL BOTANY 



THE LACK OF INTEREST IN NATURE. 



It is now more than a quarter of a centui-y since the first 

 books on science designed to make the way smooth for the be- 

 ginner appeared, and nearly as long since the sciences obtained 

 a foot-hold in all representative high schools, but now, notwith- 

 standing the fact that the generation which has taken charge 

 of the world's work has had access to this literature, has been 

 educated in such high schools, and has had such education ex- 

 tended in better equipped college laboratories than the world 

 has ever seen before, the interest in nature or in science for its 

 own sake seems not to have increased at all. In proportion to 

 the total population, there were probably more botanists a hun- 

 dred years ago than there are at the present time, and the same 

 statement doubtless holds good for zoologists as well. We 

 hear a good deal, nowadays about the movement "back to na- 

 ture" but this is more a movement in suburban real estate 

 fostered by the development of electric railways and automo- 

 biles than it is by the love of nature for her own sake. It is 

 likely that a few enthusiastic devotees will continue to write 

 books that attract only an accasional reader, edit magazines 

 that have most meagre subscription lists and hope against hope 

 that after labor enough has been expended the tide will turn 

 and everybody take an interest in what they know to be a most 

 interesting and attractive subject, but if the future may be 

 judged by the past, they are doomed to disappointment. If 

 they expect adequate results from their efforts they might bet- 

 ter at once enlist as missionaries to the South Sea islands. 

 When botany began to find a place in every reputable high 

 school, it was expected that this would soon develop a vast 



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