NATURE-STUDY WITH PLANTS 45 



gators and specialists, but it lacks the inspiration 

 and the educative im*^ulse which young minds 

 need. 



The fourth epoch is marked by the effort to 

 know the plant as a complete organism living its 

 own life in a natural way. It is marked by a 

 new and vital plant physiology. In the beginning 

 of this epoch we are now living. 



The pupil should come to the study of plants 

 and animals with little more than his natural and 

 native powers. Study with the compound micro- 

 scope is a specialization to be made when the 

 pupil has had experience and when his judgment 

 and sense of relationships are trained. 



A difficulty in the teaching of plants is to deter- 

 mine what are the most profitable topics for 

 consideration. The trouble with much of the 

 teaching is that it attempts to go too far and the 

 subjects have no vital connection with the pupil's 

 life. Good botanical teaching for the young is 

 replete with human interest. It is connected-with 

 the common associations. 



Plants always should be taught by the '' labora- 

 tory method'': that is, the pupil should work out 

 the subjects directly from the specimens themselves ; 

 but I should want it undefstood that the best 

 "laboratory" may be the field. 



Specimens mean more to the pupil when he 

 collects them. No matter how commonplace the 

 subject, a specimen will vivify it and fix it in the 

 pupil's mind. A living, growing plant is worth a 

 score of herbarium specimens. 



