IN BOTANICAL EDUCATION 5 



mentary course in the science of Botany in the high school or 

 the first year in college. Here, with good appliances used by 

 himself, or at least made familiar by thorough demonstration, 

 and with attention to scientific method, he should study the 

 fundamental topics of scientific Plant Physiology. His study 

 will necessarily be qualitative rather than quantitative, and it 

 should deal with the topics not as isolated facts, but in connec- 

 tion with the structures and habits which they help to explain, 

 and as integral parts of that organized whole which a course 

 in a science should represent even under elementary treatment. 

 The precise physiological topics which should be considered 

 in an elementary course in Botany have been much discussed 

 by teachers, and there is room for difference of opinion upon 

 the subject. But the recommendation thereon having the 

 highest educational standing is contained in a Report,* origi- 

 nally formulated by a committee of botanical teachers and 

 endorsed by the Botanical Society of America, now used as a 

 basis for its work by the College Entrance Examination Board. 

 The topics, which are not intended to be studied all together 

 by themselves, but rather here and there in the course along 

 with the structures with which they are associated and which 

 they help to explain, are the following, those in italics being 

 intended to be studied experimentally: 



Rdle of water in the plant: Absorption (osmosis); path of transfer; trans- 

 piration; turgidity and its mechanical value; plasmolysis. 



Photosynthesis: Dependence of starch formation upon chlorophyl, light, 

 and carbon dioxide; evolution of oxygen; observation of starch grains. 



Respiration: Necessity for oxygen in growth; evolution of carbon dioxide. 



Digestion: Digestion of starch with diastase, and its role in translocation 

 of foods. 



Irritability: Geotropism, heliotropism, and hydrotropism. 



Growth: Localization in higher plants; amount in elongating stems; rela- 

 tionships to temperature. 



Fertilization: Sexual and vegetative reproduction. 



In the proper places later in this book, usually under the 

 head of "demonstration" or "adapted" apparatus, I shall 



* The fourth edition of this somewhat important educational document is 

 to be published in the School Review in the autumn of 1908. 



