300 



NA TURE-STUD Y REVIEW [10:8— Nov., 1914 



ment with nature." We have always, everybody always and 

 everywhere has a proverbial distrust of "book lamin," but until 

 recent years how much of any other kind of "learning" have we 

 had in our public schools ? Even yet the toils of the books threat- 

 en to crush and strangle the life out of our education, like the ser- 

 pents of the Laocoon group. With the apple trees in full bloom 

 all around them a teacher asked her class to write a description of 

 an apple tree. The class gathered about at the close of the lesson 

 and asked her for references to books on the apple tree. She told 

 them to refer to the apple trees. The results, however, showed 

 that they all went to the library and copied their descriptions 

 out of books. 



Dr. Jean Dawson, of the Cleveland Normal School, has just 

 made a remarkable series of tests for knowledge of the most com- 

 mon out-door things, remarkable, I mean, in showing present con- 

 ditions. About seventy specimens — staple grains, beans and com- 

 mon vegetables, common household plants and branches of com- 

 mon trees — were numbered and passed around the class entering 

 the Normal School, graduates of the high schools and even of col- 

 leges. The specimens were large and typical and the pupils hand- 

 led them at will and were not hurried in their work. A few typical 

 cases follow: 



■2% did not know shelled white beans. 



2o% " " " bean plant. 

 4% " " " clover, of any kind. 



io% " " " a dandelion plant. 



67% " " " a radish plant. 



91% " " " a parsnip plant, with little parsnip. 



44% " " " a potato plant, with little potatoes. 



22% " " " a tomato plant, with blossoms and green 

 tomatoes, 



52% " " " a lettuce plant, with roots, leaves and 

 head. 



51% " " " a squash vine. 



60% " " " a cucumber vine, with leaves, blossoms 

 and little cucumbers on it. 



79% " " " a burdock. 



92% " " " a ragweed. 



79% " " " wheat in head. 



43% " " " wheat kernels in hand. 



