68 The Nature-Study Idea 



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 

 troublesome in many places. 



The second stage in plant-study in the 

 American schools was the desire to know the 

 names of the parts of plants. It came with the 

 excellent text-books of Asa Gray and others, in 

 which the results of studies in organography, 

 morphology and histology were organized and 

 defined. These books were nearly as rigid in 

 their systems and methods as text-books of 

 physics; and the pupil recited mostly from the 

 book, with perhaps some accessory observation 

 on plants. 



The third epoch is that of training for inde- 

 pendent investigation. In very recent times, 

 and chiefly since the death of Gray, the German 

 laboratory methods have been widely copied in 

 America by the many young and painstaking 

 botanists who have studied abroad. As a result 

 there are many high-schools that are equipped 

 with microscopes and apparatus that would 



