Oldest method and is vastly better than 
Sto have the laboratory work all direct 
i mab 
= or 
BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 417 
Laboratory Courses of Instruction. 
BY JOHN M. COULTER. 
In speaking of courses of instruction in botany and the me- 
thods used, no reference is made to the old “book methods” of 
teaching the subject, but simply to what are known as laboratory 
methods. With this restriction three distinct methods are ob- 
servable in our laboratories. The first will be understood when 
it is called “systematic botany”; the second is at the other ex- 
treme and ignores systematic botany, being a study of structures 
and the phenomena of life; the third tries to combine the best 
elements of both. In some laboratories “cryptogams” are un- 
taterm or two to devote 
ued. One is to use a text- 
oratory work towards the 
‘o-called “analysis” of plants, which means, 
Parison and naming of phanerogams. 
tion of facts called for in lectures, such as << sys seiahaned 
“te. This method is practiced in two ways, ether ® 
