1905 | _ ON THE Formation oF Locat CoLLEcTIONs, 155 
systematic instruction is impossible, it would be far better to 
omit botany altogether from the school courses. In some cases 
beianical and horticultural societies are doing excellent work in 
this direction and the local natural history society, if it is not 
possible or desirable to directly. conduct classes, may, by its in- 
fluence, lead the city or town school board into the paths which 
should be followed. What one horticultural society has done 
may be learned by reading the reports of the successful work of 
the children’s garden committee of the Massachusetts Horticul- 
tural Society in .Boston. 
Merely pressing and naming plants is not of itself studying 
botany, it is, literally, the driest part of plant study and, often, 
if forced to do this work, the boy or girl becomes disgusted with 
the whole subject. 
A very good way of interesting children in botany, available 
te city children as well as to those living in the country, is to 
encourage them to become familiar with the trees growing in the 
streets, to know their names, their nature, to observe them and 
to write accounts of them and their varied conditions throughout 
the year, in winter as well as summer. The herbarium, if one 
is to be made, might take the form of the life history of a single 
species. Assign to each boy and girl a different tree, or let 
groups of children study one together. At the end of the season 
each little collection should contain the seedling plant with the 
roots, a branch of leaves, a sheet or more of different forms of 
leaves, the flower,—of both sorts if there are more than one,— 
the fruit in its different stages. A specimen of the wood of each 
tree should accompany the sheets of pressed leaves and flowers 
showing the grain in section, lengthways and across, together 
with the bark. Such a collection, if carefully prepared and neatly 
mounted, would be a valuable accession to any local museum, 
while the written reports would serve admirably as exercises in 
English composition. Other groups of children could collect the 
insects found upon the trees, those which come to fertilize the 
flowers and those which are the enemies of the trees. 
A grave mistake is often made in neglecting to interest young 
persons in local societies and museums by giving them places of 
