398 SCIENCE TEACHING : EXAMINATIONS 



definitio7is, 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 simphcity, 

 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 + 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 



