Semi-Centennial Volume. 43 



But studies of the external and internal anatomy of plants worth 

 knowing, of the functions of their important parts, of plant habits and 

 plant diseases, taken in connection with studies of plant embryology 

 and plant development, are all intensely interesting to pupils and 

 teachers. By plants worth knowing is meant those plants that have 

 informational, aesthetic, industrial, medicinal or food value. The older 

 botanists paid little attention to the usefulness of plants to people, but 

 were content when they had described the parts of a plant, had found 

 its name and had noted its habitat. 



• The new botany received increasing attention in the later volumes of 

 our Transactions. In volume XVIII, B. B. Sm\th describes 307 plants, 

 giving their medicinal values. In volumes X to XXVII, Prof. L. E. 

 Sayre contributed many papers on plants, giving chiefly their medicinal 

 values. Prof. J. T. Willard and others of the Agricultural College have 

 presented papers at nearly every meeting in recent years on crops and 

 their feeding value. 



It would be impossible to give in this brief summary of papers on 

 botany even a brief description of other papers read by members of 

 the Academy, but the titles of a few of them will show their trend: "The 

 Native Plants of Kansas Adapted to Cultivation," by Grace R. Meeker; 

 "The Rusts of Kansas," by Elam Bartholomew (154 species and their 

 hosts, volume XVI) ; "The Development of Our Knowledge of Bacteria 

 During the Past Fifty Years," by Frank U. G. Agrelius, retiring presi- 

 dent of the Academy; "The Scientist on the Farm, and Origin and De- 

 velopment of Plant and Animal Instincts," by L. C. Wooster; and numer- 

 ous references in papers and addresses to plant evolution, plant pests, 

 plants for ornamentation and shade, plant tissues in the arts, and plants 

 as manufacturers of foods for animals, including man. 



Formal studies in the schools and colleges are rapidly giving way to 

 studies with valuable content, content that will function in the • after 

 experiences of the boys and girls. This statement is based on statistics 

 gathered by the U. S. Department of Education and on reports of the 

 discussions at the meetings of the National Education Association. 

 According to these statistics and reports, the number of pupils in high 

 schools studying formal botany, formal zoology, formal physiology, for- 

 mal geography, Latin, algebra and astronomy, is at the present time 

 rapidly decreasing. Colleges throughout the West, at least, are modify- 

 ing their curricula to meet the present needs of their constituents. Ex- 

 president Charles W. Elliott investigated seventy-five colleges and uni- 

 versities and found that forty-five of them required no Latin for gradu- 

 ation with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. All this means that general 

 culture in science, mathematics and ancient languages is on the wane, 

 and specific culture to meet the actual needs of people is in the ascend- 

 ency. 



Kansas State Normal School, Emporia. 



