bessey] 



FIELD WORK IN BOTANY i \ 



for all things at once. No more are we called upon to have field 

 work in every course in botany. In some courses it is an essential, 

 but in others it is quite out of place. 



I am here reminded of another subject — civil engineering — the prac- 

 tice of which becomes ultimately an out-of-door business. And yet 

 in the training of the civil engineer it is not the habit of the profes- 

 sors to have field work in connection with every course. I have been 

 watching from my study window a class of civil engineering students 

 the past few months while they were engaged in field work, and to me 

 it has been very evident that they were learning a good deal. Yet these 

 young engineers have field work in only one of their courses. In 

 the other courses they do not go out and put into practice in the 

 field what they learn in the class room, the draughting room, the lab- 

 oratories and the shops. For certain courses this field work is essen- 

 tial, for others it is not. There is a time for all things, and every- 

 thing must be done in its proper time. Let us not make the mistake 

 of allowing some things to have more than their appropriate time. 

 Let us not make the mistake of supposing that in botany all of the 

 very considerable work done in the class-room and the laboratory are 

 not valuable and necessary parts of botany. Let us not have such 

 a distorted view of the matter as to consider field work to be the only 

 work worthy of our attention. It is valuable, nay I will say that it 

 is absolutely essential in its place, but this does not require us to 

 give it more than its fair share of time. 



With this general preliminary discussion, let me separate the sub- 

 ject so as to discuss, first, field work in the grade schools, and 

 afterwards field work in the high schools. In this way I can make 

 my position much plainer. 



Let iis first inquire as to the purpose of plant study in the grade 

 schools. Why do we have these pupils take up the study of plants ? 

 Why do we teach the subject ? The answer to these questions will 

 prepare the way for the answer to the main question as to field work 

 now under discussion. The purpose of such plant study (generally 

 called nature-study) is to acquaint the pupil with the plants about 

 him. The pupil is still too young to do much generalizing. He 

 still deals largely with particulars. He thinks of particular plants, or 

 particular kinds of plants. He is still adding to his knowledge of 

 the kinds of things around him. This is the time for him to learn 

 to recognize the different kinds of trees, the many different grasses, 

 the considerable number of weeds, the mosses of many kinds, the 



