100 STATE BOAED OF AGEICULTUJtE. 



BOTANY. 



On account of a change in tho programme of studies, in future f^ix weeks of 

 this course is to come in the senior year. The members of the present sophomore 

 class were to receive four weeks' instruction in botany this year, buit on account 

 of ill health I was unable to instruct them during the last two weeks. 



The freshmen, — sixty-seven of them, — devoted one-third of their time each 

 day for the second term and for one-half of the third term, — eighteen weeks, — 

 to botany. They began as other classes have begun for several years past, by 

 studying carefully some common plants in all their parts so far as they could 

 see with the unassisted eye. No books were used for some weeks. After begin- 

 ning as above stated, they each used dissecting microscopes. Our mode of pro- 

 cedure is difficult to describe to one not accustomed to it, but teacher and pupils 

 all agree that it was one of the most interesting and profitable parts of the 

 course. The class was met in two sections an hour each day. After the first 

 lesson, each student was given some specimens of one or two species, or told 

 what to get and where he could find them. These he looked over carefully and 

 studied for his succeeding lesson. They received credit for answers or reports 

 of good accurate observations, as for other recitations of lessons learned from a 

 book. The mode is much the same as the one pursued by the late Professor L. 

 Agassiz witli his special students, and the one adopted, with some modifications, 

 by many of his most successful pupils. 



For the best results, and thorough work in studying the structure of plants, 

 the classes were much too large. This is not merely my own opinion, but that 

 of Professors Gray, Goodale, and Farlow of Harvard ; Eaton of Yale, and Pren- 

 tiss of Cornell University. 



I believe our students have learned tliat to find tlie mere name of a plant by 

 running hastily through an artificial key is of very little importance. But little 

 time is spent in such work. AVe made use of Wood's Botanist and Florist. The 

 very meagre and often incorrect portions of the text in structural botany were 

 noted by lectures in v/liich tlie subject was treated more in detail. 



The portion treating of microscopical parts was presented entirely by lectures. 

 To eacli student were shown about sixty slides or fresh preparations under the 

 compound microscope. Seeing these slides is much better than nothing, though 

 I think it quite su]Derficial. It Avas the best I could do under the circumstances. 

 It is to be compared to a course in analytical chemistry where the professor 

 should perform all the analyses and write out all the results, the formulae for 

 the reactions, etc., and then sliow the test tubes and filters and the figures to 

 the student. 



To do real satisfactory work, each student should prepare some or many of 

 his slides and study them thoroughly. He shoukl have considerable practice 

 with tlie compound microscope at his table in a well lighted and well equipped 

 laboratory for the purpose. Tlie time has gone by when a person can be con- 

 sidered a good botanist avIio has mere surface botany, — v.'ho has not had consid- 

 erable practice in the work above proposed. We expect the time will soon come 

 Avhen the Agricultural College of Michigan shall afford ample facilities for this 

 important work. Is it too soon now? 



In the second term seven lessons were given to our native ferns ; six days to 

 greenhouse and other ornamental plants. 



A written examination followed the close of tlie first term, and another will 

 follow the middle of the second term. 



A careful record of scholarship is preserved by marks in a scale from to 10. 



