154 THE Ottawa NATURALIST. [ November 
mals and plants is of far greater benefit to them than the collect- 
ing of masses of specimens of which they know but little. 
It may be treading upon dangerous ground and, perhaps, 
outside the limits of this paper, but in a great majority of in- 
stances it seems evident that the inclusion of the making of her- 
baria in the regular work of our schools, where prizes are fre- 
quently given for the largest and best arranged collections of 
dried plants, is of very questionable desirability. 
As a matter of convenience, the botanical instruction is too 
often assigned to teachers, perhaps excellent in other branches, 
who have no knowledge of botany and who can not interest the 
scholars in the subject or aid them in their work. Valuable study 
hours are wasted, usually just at the close of the school year, and 
other work neglected. It may be that one hundred small collec- 
tions of dried plants are made. Individually they are valueless 
but collectively they represent the up rooting of a great number 
of native plants, often rare ones, without any gain to the scholar 
or the school. This work as conducted in most of our schools can 
not be defended as a necessary part of any educational system, 
nor does it in any way bring the students into touch with nature 
or lead to a knowledge of her ways. 
A single new species of plant added to the local museum col- 
lection would be of more value than the entire mass of school 
herbaria and a greater honor than to win a prize for the best 
school collection. 
The school garden is a far better way of interesting chil- 
dren in botany. The children may be taught to raise their own 
specimens and, meanwhile, study the germination, leaf and 
flower morphology, the methods of fertilization and the insect 
aids, and the development of the fruit. 
The work should, of course, be done under the guidance of 
a competent instructor who could outline the course for the regu- 
lar teachers and supervise the instruction in all of the schools of 
a city or in two or more contiguous towns, as is often done now 
by special teachers of music and drawing, a method already 
shown to be successful and economical when applied to the care 
of the roads in adjoining communities. If a near approach to 
