196 The Ottawa Naturalist. [January 



It is often said that the high-school pupil should begin the study 

 of botany with the lowest and simplest forms of life. This is 

 wrong. The microscope is not an introduction to Nature. It is 

 said that the physiology of plants can be best understood by be- 

 ginning with the lower forms. This may be true : but technical 

 plant physiology is not a subject for the beginner. Other subjects 



are more important Good botanical teaching for the young 



is replete with human interest. It is connected with the common 



associations When beginning to teach about plants, one 



should think more of the pupil than ot botany. The pupil's mind 

 and sympathies are to be expanded ; not the science of botany to 

 be extended. The teacher who thinks first of his subject teaches 

 science ; he who thinks first ot his subject teaches nature 

 study. . . . The old way of teaching botany was to teach the 

 forms and the names of plants. It is now proposed that only 

 function be taught. But one cannot study function intelligently 

 without some knowledge of plant forms and names. He must 

 know the language of the subject. The study of form and func- 

 tion should therefore go together. Correlate what a plant is with 

 what it does. What is this plant ? What is its office, or how 

 did it come to be? It were a pity to teach phyllotaxy without 

 teaching light relation* It were an equal pity to teach light 

 relation without teaching phyllotaxy." 



Of the book itself there is little need to speak. The subject 

 matter is excellently edited ; the illustrations are ela' orately pro- 

 fuse — perhaps unnecessarily so — mostly half-tones ; the paper and 

 binding are of the best It is an exceedingly attractive volume, 

 and there is not a dull page between its handsome covers. 



Wa shall watch the success of this book, which in a measure 

 is a reversion to former botanical teaching ideals, with a great 

 deal of interest. There is unquestionably a tendency on the part 

 of the advanced teacher of botany to cater to the specialist in 

 scientific botany rather than to the student who wishes to study 

 plants. I think this book has a distinct mission and will find a 

 large constituency awaiting. 



J. CRAIG, 



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