BEAL ON THE STUDY OF BOTANY. . 105 



I wish to call your atteution to a notable exception to this rule in a 

 First Book of Zoologij by 10. S. Morse, published more than twenty-five 

 years ago, before some of you were born. The plan is admirable. The 

 author speaks to his pupils by text and excellent illustrations of snails, 

 clams, insects, centipedes and lobsters, and in the last part of the book, 

 where you would least expect to find it, he inserts a few chapters con- 

 cerning natural groups. Here we have the natural order of work; a 

 multitude of facts are given before the author attempts to generalize 

 or classify. 



What I term beginning botany is expected to continue daily for 

 eighteen to twenty weeks, devoting an hour and a half a day in the 

 laboratory, with sections containing each twenty-five to thirty persons. 

 Each student is furnished a stage microscope, with two needles in 

 handles, a pair of forceps and usually a small knife. During this period^ 

 the teacher must see: 



1. That he learns to use these instruments to best advantage, — cor- 

 rectly. 



2. That he learns to draw diagrams, vertical and cross sections^ 

 rather than artistic views. 



3. To make good and full notes. 



4. To learn something about plants. 



In certain cases, I find it very instructive to require students to make 

 models out of i)aper or large rutabagas or potatoes. After studying 

 the structure of the epidermis of Tradescantia, I once required the mem- 

 bers of a class to construct models from turnips. I was surprised to 

 find that some of thenr supposed that a stoma was closed by a cell 

 placed between the guard cells. 



Certainly in no course should a student attempt to stud}' everything 

 pertaining to botany. We must select some of the good portions with 

 reference to that which is most suitable for the students we teach and 

 the apparatus that is available. We select with reference to what shall 

 give the best training, and lastly that which will give them the most 

 useful information. If all were intending to pursue the study of medi- 

 cine, or of mechanical engineering, or of agriculture, or of horticulture, 

 the fact might influence more or less the topics to be selected, but in 

 most schools, the pupils will pursue a great variety of callings after 

 completing a course, or before that time. We must keep in mind all the 

 time that, "'What a man can do is more important than what he knows.'^ 



For acquiring the power of observation every day, there can be nothing- 

 better than the study of the gross anatomy of plants, and for cultivating 

 the judgment, plant morphology is unsurpassed, especially where fre- 

 quent comparisons are insisted on. 



While these two lines of work are kept at the front, from the first 

 lesson on the first day and all through the courses, I encourage every 

 student not to forget to ask himself the question, "Wliy and How?'' 

 This will call in more or less of physiology, ecology, description and 

 classification or relationship. Under ecology especially, the following 

 questions are always interesting. W'hy are plants not all found in the 

 same region, why do they not all flower at once? Here comes in the 

 14 



