Report of the Executive Committee 33 



the plant are given in a very elementary way. When the children 

 leave the Third Form they are expected to have a good general know- 

 ledge of the parts of a plant and of a flower, and to be able to use the 

 most simple botanical terms. 



"In the three Fourth Forms (upper, middle, and lower) the pupils 

 have lessons on Structure and Physiology in the latter part of the 

 autumn term and in the early spring; during the late spring and 

 summer they begin Classification and learn how to describe a plant 

 in botanical terms. These lessons are graduated in difficulty in the 

 three forms, so that a girl leaving the Upper Fourth Form should have 

 a sound elementary knowledge of general Botany. 



" In the Fifth and Sixth Forms the work is on the lines laid down 

 in Professor Balfour's Lower and Higher Schedules, in preparation for 

 the examinations of the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination 

 Board. 



" In all the classes a great endeavour is made to give the lessons as 

 far as possible on actual living specimens, and except in the two upper 

 forms, where the scope is limited by examination work, the specimens 

 chosen are those which are obtainable in the near neighbourhood of 

 Brighton, the flora of Sussex being both rich and varied. 



" Each of the children is provided with a specimen, and they are 

 trained as far as may be in the very limited time given to the subject to 

 observe independently." 



The exhibits from such a school as Bigods-hall, Dunmow, 

 mainly showed "the kind of work that is looked upon as 

 best suited for preparing a boy while at school for after-life 

 on the farm ". The apparatus for teaching plant physiology 

 exhibited by this school was noticeable, so also were the 

 "experiments showing plants growing in solutions", ex- 

 hibited by the James Allen's Girls' School, Dulwich. 



In some cases it seemed that the teaching of agricultural 

 zoology was undertaken, while in others, as, for instance, in 

 those of the Girls' Public Day School Company, zoology is 

 a recognized subject of instruction. 



OBSERVATIONAL LESSONS. 



As a type of this class of work, what is done in the lower 



forms of some High Schools and Grammar Schools where 



c 



