398 SCIENCE TEACHING : EXAMINATIONS 



definitions, and those you do not put before him categorically. 

 Many men have many minds and my mind always revolted 

 at having to read up a long yarn about a word, whose meaning 

 alone in a tangible form I wanted at the time. My own plan 

 would have been to have left much of what you say in the 

 first part to a chapter on Morphology. I think too that by 

 using too many words and attempting too much simplicity, 

 you involve the sentences and mask their meaning. I did 

 honestly try hard, and for the life of me could not understand 

 your definitions of Hypogynous, perigynous, etc. 



A similar letter to Asa Gray on the appearance of his 

 excellent * Elements of Botany ' (March 30, 1857) re-enforces 

 these points of view. Some loose definitions are criticised, 

 but the chief one desideratum was an Introductory Chapter 

 'written in the same lucid, simple, and still accurate and 

 sober style/ introducing the beginner to some of the more 

 leading ideas in a practical study of plans telling him 

 what to look out for, and giving examples of them. He 

 must insist also on certain definitions being ' absolutely and 

 unalterably impressed on every pupil's mind and at their 

 fingers' ends.' A glossary at the end is not enough. 



It is true that ' Organs,' ' Morphology/ and most of these 

 terms, not all, are defined in the Glossary, but ten to one the 

 pupil will go through and through the work and be unable 

 to define ' Anatomy,' ' Organs/ ' function/ ' type/ at the 

 end of it ! 



The definition of Physiology is rather loose, is it not ? 



' The Science of the Forces that determine the j of 



functions.' Your term ' the way it grows ' (act of growth) 

 is development, which is not physiology but a branch of 

 morphology. Physiology is Physics -f- Chemistry. It is true 

 that bad Botanical definers class ovule, growth, and such 

 things under Physiology, but if so then aestivation, verna- 

 tion, and every other phase of development comes under 

 Physiology. 



A little might be said on the great advantage of Systematic 

 Botany as a means of schooling the mind (as good as Mathe- 

 matics) to habits of close observation, accurate defining, and 



