2J5 BOTANICAL GAZIiTTE. 



cannot be overestimated. With us the teacher does the asserting in 

 his own, or other authority, the pupil simply accepts, and that ends it 

 until examination day. But what critical scholarship, what mature 

 judgment, has been, or can be formed by such a process? 



No botanical laboratory is worth the name which does not inchide 

 in itsoutfitagood working compound microscope, along with chemicals 

 for each student, and tvpe si)ecimens, and a modern set of standard 

 botanical works of reference which should be freely used. No bo- 

 tanical course, consisting of lectures exclusively can rise to the dignity 

 of being contemptible, if its ol ject is to make botanists or to even give 

 a certificate of botanical proficiency. There is no biological laboratory 

 of England where students investigate more critically the teachings of 

 the chair than in that of Prof Huxley, nor, on the other hand is there 

 any one which is producing now and promises m the future to produce 

 agre;\ler impression on the thought of the age. I conclude then that 

 the time has fairly come for a change in our modes of teachmg. and 

 until we do adopt the methods of work which are now so universdly 

 followed abroad, we may expect to see an annual exodus of our most 

 aspiring students to foreign seats of learning. Instead of concealing 

 how much we lack ot the true standard, the friends of liberal, practi- 

 cal, botanical education can do no more effective work than by agitating 

 the subject until the remedy is furnished. There is yet one more as- 

 pect in which we may view this question. Popular ideas connect 

 botany only \\\\\\ flowers. It is proper for us to insist that it produces 

 //•////as well, that no science is more intimately asso<-iated with our 

 food, drink, raiment and medicine than this. The public mind should 

 be informed that it takes cognizance of practical forestry, of the diseases 

 of our cereal grains, and indicates what we are to do in these direc- 

 tions. 



That the impression should have prevailed so long that botani- 

 cal study brings nothing of utility with it is largely our own fault. It 

 is just what we have made it. When we work these needed reforms 

 and show the ])ublic that we are in earnest, we may exjjcct to see our 

 science properly represented in every college of the land, but not be- 

 I'ore. — J. T. Ro'iHUOCK. 



S(nno Additions to tli<' Nortli American Flora, by Dr.G. 



I'aigelmann. — 1^sciisciiolt/i.\ (:amf()kni(:.\. — The different forms of 

 this common and extremely variable ])lant deserve to be studied more 

 carefully at their homes, where they are found in such untold abun- 

 dance. It is (piite ])ossible, as indicated in the Flora of California, 

 that the several species into whicii it had been divided, may be sus- 

 tained by reliable characters. All the forms, however, are .said to be 

 annuals with colorless juice. Now, on the sandhills of the ocean, 

 (piite close to the well Unown Cliff-house near San Francisco, I found 

 ■ last October a form with long perennial rof)ts, ]A inch thick, al)Ound 

 ing in orange-colored juice, and bearing several stems ; leaves shorter 

 than the internodes, often opposite, flowers i inch wide ; torus brond- 

 Iv margined, (-apsule about 2 inches long, seeds reticulated. In most 



