1887. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 141 
sification, and the young writer by preparing a text-book, both of 
which attempts require the most mature judgment backed by the fullest 
experience. And so we must continue to have a perennial supply of 
these attempts: some will do good, none will do serious harm ; and any 
of them may serve to introduce a working botanist whose subsequent 
performance will atone for the crudity of his first appearance. The day 
of the well-nigh universal use of any text-book is probably past, for there 
is such a diversity of opinion concerning methods of presentation that 
there must needs be text-books equally diverse. Besides, text-books are 
becoming more and more books of reference for library rather than class- 
room use. However, the high schools, and colleges of equal rank in 
botanical equipment, are clamoring for a text-book, or rather the botan- 
ists are telling them that they need one. Several attempts have been 
made to supply this demand, but the failures may be grouped under four 
heads: (1). Some have attempted too much, apparently lacking the 
power of judicious omission, and the book is so bulky and technical that 
the untrained teacher (and they are mostly untrained in the high schools) 
will never attempt it but once. The authors of these books have kept an 
eye on the criticism of fellow botanists rather than the need of high 
school classes, and have feared if they omitted anything they might be 
accused of not knowing it. We fear that the hypercriticism indulged in 
by some of our leading scientific journals has developed this spirit. For 
it is their custom to pass over the whole well-constructed bulk of the 
book to condemn some little detail which more than likely holds no rela- 
tion to the general purpose. (2). Others have gone to the opposite ex- 
treme, and having young pupils constantly in mind, have endeavored to 
attract and simplify at the expense of accuracy, & method that should be 
heartily condemned. (8). A third class of books, worse than either of 
the former, are those that treat the science of botany as @ vocabulary of 
scientific terms. A full and illustrated glossary is not a botanical text- 
book, and the attempt to use it as such is to bring discredit upon 
botany. (4). A lack in all our recent text-books, which is against & 
long life, is the lack of a manual for the determination of plants. 
yz 
manual, and a manual is no easy thing to prepare. When a book can 
Prepared technically accurate and full enough for scientific botanists, 
elementary enough for beginners, perfectly easy for untrained teachers 
to use, suggestive enough for the experienced worker, large enough to 
contain all the science of botany and a manual, small enough to be com- 
pleted in a term of twelve weeks and sell for a dollar or two, then will 
every one commend it as the book to “ fill a felt want;” but hee goss 
can accomplish this must be one who speaks “as never man spake. 
