FOR THE TEACHER AND THE STUDENT 241 



As a matter of fact, this subject is taught 

 along with botany, zoology, or pomology, if 

 it is taught at all. Nearly always it comes 

 with botany or zoology; very seldom has it 

 come with pomology. Yet pomology is the 

 very subject in connection with which it can 

 best be taught. The material is all more 

 easily within reach that is, all but the text- 

 books. The objects to be classified are well 

 known to all of us. Even the critically dis- 

 tinctive characters are such as are of common 

 knowledge to every boy or girl who has had 

 the privilege of growing up on the farm. 

 Even the more complex matters of nomencla- 

 ture and classification are easier to handle in a 

 strictly scientific manner in the classroom 

 when they concern peaches or cherries than 

 when they concern agremones or penicilliums 

 or ichneumons. 



In a word, systematic pomology offers the 

 best opportunity yet discovered for study- 

 ing taxonomy, the basis of all the natural 

 sciences. 



There are points of detail in which the 

 "pedagogic value" of systematic pomology 

 is especially marked. Suppose a student is 

 given some specimens of Sheldon pear to 



