viNAL COMMON MISTAKES IN NATURAL HISTORY 37 



This list of biological terms is a" collection of words which are 

 most frequently misspelled. Although many well-educated people 

 are poor spellers the correct spelling of these words may indicate 

 the amount of Biology one has had. In the case of radish, how- 

 ever, the lowest per cent of correct spelling was 45% made by 

 high school graduates who had had Botany. The misspelling in 

 this instance may have been an index to the kind of Botany they 

 had had in high school. 



The singular of species is most often misspelled. It should be 

 specie. The highest average, was 26% made by the freshmen of a 

 woman's college. The word specie was the incorrect form most 

 commonly used. One scientist has said that specie is something 

 that a biologist never has. The difficulty may be easily removed 

 in other cases by knowing the meaning of the word as in the case 

 of harelip, pronimciation as in develop, or the origin as dandelion 

 from dent-de-lion. Such words as occurrence may be made in- 

 delible by calling attention to the two r's. The second most 

 difficult word is mullein. Six per cent of the men in the freshmen 

 class of a noted university were able to spell the word correctly. 

 The Winston Simplified Dictionary gives muUen as a possibility 

 but this book was not published until 1919 and it is doubtful if any 

 of these men obtained their modem method of spelling from this 

 source. 



The relations according to sex are of interest. The boys from a 

 ninth grade headed the list in spelling development correctly with 

 an average of 84%. The girls from the same school had an aver- 

 age of 63% but when it came to the word occurrence the girls 

 headed the whole list with 84% correct and the boys of the school 

 had but 56% correct. The girls from two junior high schools 

 obtained the higher per cent in 11 cases and the boys in 10 cases. 

 The difference is more marked when we come to the freshmen in 

 college where the girls win in 15 cases and the boys in 6 cases. 

 Three of these words, where the men averaged higher were in the 

 list won by the boys in the grades. In general, as expected, the 

 spelling efficiency increases with age and grade. 



This list of words is not intended for a school spelling lesson. 

 They should be added to the pupils' vocabulary when occasion 

 arises for their use. As they are words which are misspelled over 

 and over again the teacher should make sure that they are mas- 

 tered. Since most of these words are commonly used by children 

 in the grades they should be effectively dealt with at that time. 



