248 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
the academy in different years, and also to prevent the lectures 
overlapping. A student who wishes to do so may, however, take 
up any subject he chooses, independently of this plan, although 
those who intend to take a full course must follow it to a certain 
extent, otherwise they will be unable to finish their studies within 
the prescribed time. The average number of hours per day spent 
in the lecture-rooms are not more than five for the five days in the 
week on which lectures are given, and these are almost entirely 
confined to the morning in the summer session, a commencement 
being made at 7 a.m. A lecture which occupies more than one 
hour is always divided into two parts, by a break of a quarter of an 
hour in the middle, in order to prevent any weariness or inattention 
resulting from a long sitting. Great importance is attached to 
“‘yepetitoriums,” in which the ground of former lectures is glanced 
rapidly over, bringing out the most important points in the various 
subjects. These are given frequently during the second part of the 
course, so that the student may be kept up to the mark in every- 
thing from the beginning. 
The afternoons of two days in the week, and the whole of the 
Saturday, are devoted to excursions during the summer session, 
while for the students of the second course, the Wednesday also is 
taken up in this way. In the winter session excursions only take 
place on the Wednesday and Saturday. These excursions rarely 
occupy more than half a day, the forestry excursions being of course 
the longest and farthest afield. They are duly notified in the hall 
of the academy some few hours or days beforehand, the time and 
place of rendezvous and also the theme being given. The lecturer 
there meets the students, and a lecture lasting the best part of an 
hour is given if the subject is in connection with any special work 
or sylvicultural system, in order to explain its adoption and the 
conditions under which it must be modified. In the case of 
practical work, such as sowing or planting, the cost of the work 
under different methods is stated, and the older students are 
usually invited to show their proficiency in the work. Sometimes 
the excursions are of a more rambling character, and several miles 
have to be traversed in order to demonstrate the subject in different 
parts of the forest, anything met with on the way that calls for any 
special notice being duly observed and commented upon, At every 
excursion a reporter is selected from among the students, who is 
obliged to draw up a complete report of the excursion and the 
explanation given, so far as they relate to the theme. These 
