BOTANY IN THE VILLAGE SCHOOL 159 



often find it a difficult matter to puzzle one of the best pupils, 

 not merely as to the name a trivial matter but as to the 

 structure of the flower itself. 



The Government Inspector in 1858, wrote as follows in his 

 Report : " Extra subjects, pretty fair, and among them Botany, 

 excellent \ this last being most thoroughly yet simply taught, 

 and by such a system that there can be no cram. As far as a 

 child goes, it must know what it does. The good moral effect of 

 this study o?i the minds of the children is very apparent." 



In those days, I am speaking of the " fifties," Darwin had 

 not enlightened us as to the wonderful adaptations of flowers 

 for fertilization by insects. This adds enormously to the interest 

 of the study as the present writer soon found with village 

 children of the parishes in which he has lived, and taught them 

 botany but even without that attraction the Hitcham children 

 were intensely enthusiastic. 



The Professor also taught them how to dry plants. The 

 village Herbarium, containing all the plants growing wild in 

 Hitcham, was entirely made by them. 



It may be asked by cynics, " What can be the tise of teaching 

 science to such children .-' " It is not the mere fact that a child 

 knows the structure of a rose, but it is the training in accuracy 

 of observation, mind and habit, which the minute and close 

 observation demands, i.e. if it be properly taught, and to secure 

 that, is all important in children, who are naturally inattentive 

 and inaccurate in consequence. In teaching them botany as 

 described above, the child is trained to avoid this bad habit 

 in an interesting way, because inattention is solely due to want 

 of interest. 



The Ipswich Museum was a great source of pleasure to him. 

 As President he carried out his plan of making it a " typical " 

 museum, never letting it degenerate into a mere show, as so 

 many country museums are, or at least used to be. 



The Ipswich Museum has been a model for all others in that 

 typical series of fossils, etc., are exhibited in the visible cases, 

 all others being relegated to drawers, for students to examine. 

 In allusion to the uses of Museums in his inaugural address 

 referred to above, he remarked : " Our collections should be 



