PARAGRAPHS FOR THE TEACHER IX 



The old way of teaching botany was to teach the 

 forms and the names of plants. It is now proposed 

 that only function be taught. But one cannot study 

 function intelligently without some knowledge of plant 

 forms and names. He must know the language of the 

 subject. The study of form and function should go 

 together. Correlate what a plant is with what it does. 

 What is this part? What is its office, or how did it 

 come to be? It were a pity to teach phyllotaxy with- 

 out teaching light-relation: it were an equal pity to 

 teach light-relation without teaching phyllotaxy. 



Four epochs can be traced in the teaching of 

 elementary botany: (1) The effort to know the names 

 of plants and to classify. This was the outgrowth of 

 the earlier aspect of plant knowledge, when it was 



n ssary to make an inventory of the things in the 



world. (2) The desire to know the formal names of 

 the parts of plants. This was an outgrowth of the 

 study of gross morphology. Botanies came to be dic- 

 tionaries of technical terms. (3) The effort to develop 

 the powers of independent investigation. This was 

 largely a result of the German laboratory system. 

 which developed the trained specialist investigator. It 

 emphasized the value of the compound microscope 

 and other apparatus. This method is of the greatesl 

 service to botanical science, bul its introduction into 

 the secondary M-hools is usually unfortunate. (4) The 

 effort to know the plan! as a complete organism 

 living its own life in ;i natural way. In the begin- 

 ning of this epoch we are now living. 



