276 BOTANICAL EDUCATION [Bot. Absts. 



1899. Anonymous. Agricultural schools and experiment farms. Official Year Book 

 Union South Africa 2: 448-450. 1919. — There are five agricultural schools and experiment 

 farms in the Union; particulars are given concerning the regular courses, extension work, 

 experimental and research work undertaken at these establishments. — E. M. Doidge. 



1900. Anonymous [Rev. of: Cook, M. T. Applied economic botany. J. B. Lippincott 

 Co.: Philadelphia, 1919. (See Bot. Absts. 3, Entry 491.)] Amer. Bot. 25: 116-117. Aug., 

 1919. — "One of the first books to indicate an approaching change in the subject matter of plant 

 studies." — Reviewer. 



1901. Anonymous. Botanic gardens. Amer. Bot. 25: 101, 105. 1919.— Credited to 

 "News, Imperial Department Agriculture, B. W. I. [British West Indies]." 



1902. Anonymous. [Rev. of: Gruenberg, B. C. Elementary biology, x + 528 p., 

 261 fig. Ginn and Co.: Boston, 1919.] Amer. Bot. 25: 115-116. Aug., 1919.— The reviewer 

 is convinced "that a combination of the showy parts of botany and zoology will never be 

 successfully substituted for courses in the sciences named." — Reviewer. 



1903. Barthe, A. E. Campitos escolares. [School gardens.] Revist. Agric. Com. y 

 Trab. 2:443^53. 6 fig. 1919. 



1904. [Bruckman, Louisa, and C. Stuart Gager.] Educational conference on biology 

 in New York City high schools. Brooklyn Bot. Gard. Rec. 8: 95-121. July, 1919.— Report of 

 conference held under auspices of Brooklyn Botanic Garden at the laboratory building, April 

 4, 1919. Includes remarks by various speakers, principals of New York High Schools, univer- 

 sity professors, and others on educational value of botany and general biology in high schools. 

 The associate superintendent of New York City schools was reported to have said that gen- 

 eral biology, as a high school subject, did not "function." Majority of speakers contended 

 that biology has demonstrated beyond question that it has value equivalent to any other sub- 

 ject of the high school course from the standpoint of both content and discipline. The occa- 

 sion of the conference was the movement to introduce into New York City High Schools courses 

 in general science and community civics. This would result in eliminating general biology, 

 at least as a required subject in the first year of the high school. — C. S. Gager. 



1905. Caldwell, Otis W. The Gary Public Schools: science teaching, viii + 125 p. 

 The General Education Board: New York, 1919. — One of a series of eight reports, embodying 

 the results of a survey of the Gary (Indiana, U. S. A.) public schools, made by the General 

 Education Board, on invitation of the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools 

 of Gary. Gives a detailed account of the theory, equipment, actual practice, and results of 

 the so-called "duplicate" system (Gary system) so far as concerns nature study, school gar- 

 dens, zoology, and botany. The botany work largely centers around applied topics or "proj- 

 ects," in horticulture and agriculture, with special attention to the botany of cultivated plants. 

 Gives list of "projects," and detailed outline of course in "botany" for seventh and eighth 

 grades. Treats in similar manner of Zoology, Physics, and Chemistry. In the Conclusion 

 author states that the pupils were interested, "but they were more than interested — they were 

 being trained to think and act effectively. The teaching of botany and gardening at the 

 Froebel school .... kept in close contact with the facts and needs of life. Elsewhere, 

 however, the instruction was too frequently formless and aimless." Author notes a "lack 



of continuity and of organizing purpose Gary's science supervision is nominal 



and its staff conferences far too rare to answer their purpose." Gary has "shown courage and 

 resourcefulness in trying to free science teaching from its remote and abstract character, in 

 trying to bring it into touch with the pupil's experience and to relate it to his other school 

 work;" but "beyond a general and sound predilection for the concrete is embodied in the 

 environment and experience of the pupil, it is impossible to discern at Gary satisfactory prin- 

 ciples of organization or progression in science teaching. Unquestionably, the children are 

 interested in their science work and derive pleasure from it, and to this end the work is of 



