56 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
that the latter are a little more violent. I believe that the good 
name of botany can and will be cleared of the unjust indictment 
of being useless. I also believe that science will soon form a 
part of the elementary school course, but I doubt if it can go in 
under the name of Nature Study. 
The work done by the advocates of general science has, I 
believe, been done in good faith and it has served at least one 
excellent purpose. It has put the case squarely before us in a 
way that demands immediate attention. 
It is not a simple problem. Many factors have contributed 
to the condition so tersely expressed in the report of the Com- 
missioner of Education. It seems to me that the discussions of 
Dr. Gager and Prof. Jordan before the sections of Botany and 
of Agriculture respectively of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science point us in the right direction. 
What these men have said I believe is in perfect harmony with 
what Prof. John M. Coulter has been preaching in season and 
out of season for the past five years or more. The apparent 
harmony of thought and purpose coming from what in the 
recent past have been considered rival camps is evidence that 
progress is being made. I believe that the time should come 
and I have faith that it will come, and that soon, when the 
agricultural courses both in the secondary schools and in the 
colleges will require a preliminary knowledge of botany. The 
agriculturalists need it and the botanists can do the job. When 
agreement can be reached on what the content of such a course 
should be a big step will have been made toward the solution of 
our problem. 
I do not believe, however, that botanical courses in the sec- 
ondary school should exist entirely or even primarily, as a pre- 
liminary to agriculture or horticulture. There are too many 
students who by the very nature of the case cannot continue in 
that direction and botany can be made to serve them in a more 
effective way. 
I would like to see the courses in botany prepared for the 
high schools and for beginning work in college so that the 
points of application to the lives and interests of every one 
would be so numerous and so evident that there would be no 
