/)j^~,SCHOOL BOTANY 



MoNOCOT AND DicoT Stems. — The good botanist is usually 

 so familiar with the structure of monocot and dicot stems that 

 he may fail to present the subject clearly to students through 

 failure to appreciate their point of view. Care must be taken 

 to select typical examples. To compare, for instance, a piece 

 of asparagus with a basswood twig is misleading for one is 

 an herb and the other a woody plant. Possibly the best way 

 of approach would be the comparison of the stem of the cat 

 brier (Smilax) with a twig of any common dicot tree or shrub 

 and to follow this up with a comparison of such a plant as the 

 bamboo with that of the elder. Asparagus or corn, usually 

 studied are only properly compared with such dicot stems as 

 those of geranium or begonia. The reason the comparison of, 

 say, the cornstalk, with the woody dicot stem is not successful, 

 is because the pupil is likely to assume the hard outer portion 

 of the monocot to correspond either to the wood or bark of the 

 dicot, and thus miss entirely the significance of the scattered 

 bundles. 



Changing Names. — "Why should any man, even though a 

 profound scholar familiar with the intricacies of his own field, 

 so far forget or minimize the difficulties of the long way by 

 which he has to come, as to be willing to leave the path harder 

 for the next comer" queries the veteran zoologist, J. G. Need- 

 ham in Science- Well, this is an easy one. The profound 

 scholar, the scholar lacking profoundty and the plant student 

 so lacking in scholarship that he doesn't even know what pro- 

 fundity means, are alike resting under the impression that to 

 do something in science one has only to undo or change some- 



120 



