372 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sented upon any economic subject in his respective group. Lim- 

 ited space prevents the reproduction here of even a part of a 

 single paper, thus prepared, although the desire is strong to do it. 

 Some students exhibited much originality in grouping the most 

 important facts and followed up the work until all the sources of 

 information were exhausted. The views of different authors con- 

 cerning the relative position and "naturalness" of the orders 

 frequently came up, and many important points in systematic 

 botany appeared for consideration. 



Some teachers may think too much time was given to this 

 library-work. Let it be kept in mind that at this same time the 

 field-work upon the collection was being prosecuted. During the 

 afternoon a student may have searched in the field and forest for 

 living spicemens, and the following evening hunted in the botani- 

 cal alcove of the library for the facts concerning an economic 

 topic, or collected notes for a paper upon a natural order. The 

 work outside of the class-room and laboratory was a wholesome 

 and healthful mixture of searching in the open air and among the 

 library-books. The habit of looking up subjects in a list of 

 authorities is exceedingly valuable, and one which many students, 

 of themselves, never acquire. When at the same time they get 

 information upon the most practical of subjects, a double purpose 

 is served. A breadth of view of economic botany is thus obtained 

 which does not come from conning a text-book or listening to a 

 course of lectures. 



Each student took full notes upon the orders as the papers 

 were presented in class. At the close an examination was held, 

 which consisted in writing upon six out of ten orders chosen by 

 lot from the whole list. Each student, of course, omitted his own 

 order if it chanced to be among those drawn. 



In direct contrast with the work in the library was that upon 

 the topics of research. These subjects were also given out at the 

 beginning of the term, so that observations and experiments could 

 be extended over fully three months of the growing season. This 

 is the fourth branch of the term's work, and was designed to lead 

 the students to become investigators in a small way, and learn to 

 ask questions of and receive answers directly from Nature. How 

 well this work was done can only be determined by a careful read- 

 ing of the papers prepared under this head. It is impossible to 

 more than indicate the results obtained. In the following notes 

 the topics of research are given within quotation-marks : The stu- 

 dent with " The Wild Plants of our (the college) Public Grounds " 

 found one hundred and eight species in thirty-four orders. The 

 paper gave the number in each order ; those which were herbs, 

 shrubs, or trees, etc. For example, there were twenty-seven com- 

 positae, ten polygonacese, five cruciferse, ten families with two 



