NATURE-STUDY WITH PLANTS 



Any one who has listened to discussions in the 

 'recent meetings of teachers and scientists must 

 have been impressed with the great prominence 

 which is given to nature-study. The nature-study 

 movement is now, perhaps, the most conspicuous 

 new feature in educational ideals in the sec- 

 ondary and primary schools. All the so-called 

 natural sciences are contributing to the movement. 

 The methods in plant-study, however, show a 

 distinct development in pedagogical ideas which 

 it may be well to recapitulate. One can make 

 out four fairly well marked epochal ideals in the 

 teaching of plant subjects. 



First, was the eiffbrt to know the names of 

 plants and to classify the kinds. This was a direct 

 reflection of the systematic or classificatory studies 

 of the botanists. The external world had been 

 unknown as to its details, and botanists necessarily 

 attempted inventories of the plant kingdom. 

 Plants must be collected and named. From this 

 impulse arose the herbarium collecting, a method 

 of teaching which was so thoroughly impressed 

 into school methods a generation or two ago that 

 it is still a troublesome factor in many places. 



The second stage in plant-study in the American 



(43) 



