Teaching of Botany. 315 



teaching herbarium ami museum should be formed U> which all serious 

 students should have easy access. Besides familiarizing the mind 

 of the student Avith his native plants, the study of herbarium and 

 museum specimens has the additional advantage of correlating in a 

 general system the types which have been used in the earlier part ot 

 the course. It is of even greater importance that a classified collec- 

 tion of living plants, to some extent grouped according to natural 

 orders, should be accessible. 



These experiences will l)e of immense value in preparing the 

 way for the last stage of the elementary course, viz.. the systematic. 

 study of the natural orders. As a further preliminary the men should 

 have a little practice in what is commonly known as " Descriptive 

 Botany," from which will be gained a knowledge of the more im- 

 portant technical terms used ijT Ixitanical descriptions and of the i;se 

 of floral diagrams. For ihis work living plants alone should be 

 studied, the use of dried specimens being open to very serious objec- 

 tions. The natural orders selected for illustration should be those most 

 commonlv represented in the native flora, together with such smaller 

 orders as may be necessary for the illustration of affinities. Every 

 natural order should be illustrated by one or more types, and by 

 such aberrant forms as may be obtainable and convenient. Specimens 

 should be in the student's hands during lecture and afterwards in 

 the laboratory careful dissections and drawings must be insisted upon. 



The course, thus sketched out. if conscientiously doiie, should 

 afford a sound knowledge of the general principles of the science 

 which will render intelligible the second part of the programme, which 

 in comparison with the foregoing ma\- be termed the " advanced 

 course. This can be descrilied in a few words. It comprises a system- 

 atic study of the vegetable kingdom. Each group from the Algae to the 

 seed-bearing plants is dealt with in some detail. Its phylogeny. its 

 systematic relation to neighbouring groups, the principles of its sub- 

 division into sub-groups and families are described and the anatomi- 

 cal. HKjrphological and phvsiological characters of the plants compos- 

 ing it are explained as far as ])ossible. General questions of physiology 

 will be gone into more fullv than in the previous course and further 

 experiments will V)e introduced. Among the phanerogams a further 

 number of natural orders will be studied. In general, this advanced 

 course will be designed to deepen and to give application to the 

 l)rinciples learned in the elementary course. 



Botanical "work advanced bevond this stage should, in my 

 opinion, be conducted on a somewhat different plan with the 

 sjjecial object of bringing out the individualitv ajid firiginalitv 

 of the student. I should not proiX)se to invite him to attend 

 lectures beyond two or three short special courses. The main 

 part of his work on the other hand will be of a practical character, 

 and he should even be encouraged to undertake a promising piece 

 of investigation, opportunities for which abound in this countr}-. Side 

 by side with this practical work he will follow a course of reading 

 carefully arranged to give him an insight into the methods and results 

 of rerent investigations. The researches to which attention is directed 



