70 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Szss. ixix. 
copious vocabulary of technical terms is a dead weight on 
true progress; that questions of priority of nomenclature are 
unsuitable to all but a few advanced students; that problems 
of synonymy are, let us hope, an incumbrance of only a 
temporary stage of the science; and, above all, that the 
acquisition by a student of a love for the study and of the 
habit of investigation is worth far more than a knowledge, 
however extensive, gathered only from the work of others. 
Not less fully must we agree that the aims of botanical 
instruction formerly were far too limited, and that a living 
interest has been brought in by the discoveries of Charles 
Darwin and others, who have opened up new aspects of the 
science, and have widened our conceptions of it. The 
complaint that the nutrition of green plants was long almost 
ignored in courses of instruction has too much truth in it. 
But, while there is much in the report with which we can 
fully agree, opinions are expressed that might have been 
more happily stated, and that appear to be liable to mis- 
interpretations of an unfortunate kind, and that, apparently 
authorised by botanists of so deservedly high repute, might 
have very unfortunate results. The following quotations 
from the report show its attitude with regard to herbaria 
and, incidentally, to museums and local lists of plants :— 
“Students of botany have been encouraged to spend most 
of their time upon the characters by which the British 
flowering plants are distinguished from one another, the 
ultimate purpose being apparently a more perfect knowledge 
of their distribution within these islands. The scientific 
product of local lists has by no means justified the time and 
labour bestowed upon them, and their educational effect has 
been depressing instead of stimulating.” 
“Tt is a mark of the present immaturity of the Nature 
Knowledge movement that whenever a fresh attempt is 
made to stimulate the teacher, it is accompanied by a great 
display of dried plants, diagrams, lantern slides, models, 
slices of useful woods, lists of species observed, with their 
dates, and maps of distribution. All these are dead products, 
and only indicate that some one has been taking pains. 
Those teachers who fix their attention upon the living plant 
and its activities will have little need of bought appliances.” 
“ We have a poor opinion of drying plants as an incentive 
