ORGANIZATION OF BOTANICAL MUSEUMS. 203 



To all teachers I would say, enlist the sympathies of your 

 students by asking those who have the draughtsman's faculty, to 

 sketch one drawing each month as a regular class exercise, for 

 which credit will be given. The teacher should select a cer- 

 tain jar for a student, indicate the various details that are 

 shown when the object is placed in a certain position, and 

 leave it with him to work out an illustration. When finished 

 the teacher can append to the drawing short reference descrip- 

 tions, and when returned to the museum shelf it will ever 

 after be a source of instruction — a silent lecture to those who 

 follow. 



In a few years a pretty large collection can thus be artisti- 

 cally described. By the subscription of each draughtsman's 

 name to his design, a record will accumulate of the quality of 

 each year's classwork, while the teacher, each time that he 

 inspects the collection, will live over again the intercourse he 

 had with his students. 



Short reference can now be made to the cost of such collec- 

 tions, and their practical educational value. We will accept it 

 that all public institutions receive duty-free alcohol at about 

 60 c. per gallon, and that the cost of the three sizes of jar is 

 approximately that given in the earlier part of this paper. For 

 the average high school a collection of one gross small size, 

 two gross medium size, and a half gross large size would suffice. 

 The entire cost would be about $250. For a college, where the 

 teaching is rather more varied and advanced, a set of one 

 thousand jars would cost about $500. A university collection 

 should be so rich and capable of extension as to constantly 

 represent and keep abreast of every new departure in the 

 science. 



i^g) Some of the results obtained. — We claim for the system 

 as now outlined many valuable results. It compels on the part 

 of teacher and student alike a closer intimacy with living plants 

 than has hitherto been attained on the average. It enables 

 the teacher to draw the student's attention to the natural form 

 of plants at all seasons of the year. It presents ample scope 

 for the exercise of mental, manipulative, and artistic ingenuity. 

 It stimulates the comparative method of observation and study, 



