424 REPORT — 1908. 



(1) Every pupil should have an object to himself, or at least be able 

 to examine the object as long and as closely as he pleases. A drawing is 

 not to be allowed to rank as an object. 



(2) Living and growing plants should be frequently observed. 



(3) The living plant should not only be studied in Hower, but when- 

 ever the change of season brings on a new phase of growth. Fruits, buds, 

 and seedlings are as important as flowers. 



(4) Experiment can hardly come in too early, and there is nothing 

 else quite so stimulating. Even young children can appreciate the interest 

 of a simple experiment, and they may be allowed to take part in it before 

 they are able to conduct it themselves. 



It is discouraging to learn from advertisements in the educational 

 papers what facilities are offered for scamping the object-lesson. The 

 teacher is encouraged to buy his objects, to buy his pictures, and to buy 

 liis lessons. It is probable that the late demand for nature knowledge 

 has greatly multiplied the number of worthless object-lessons which are 

 given in school. Unless the teacher regularly works for himself he is 

 not fit to show others how to work, and no good will come of inducing 

 him to add nature knowledge to the list of subjects in which he offers 

 instruction. 



Plant-physiology in the School. — When the age of the pupils and the 

 circumstances of the school favour the i-egular study of Botany we have 

 to choose among several ways of treating the science, each of which has 

 found zealous advocates. If the decision were left to ourselves we should 

 give a distinct pre-eminence to the study of Plant-physiology, on the 

 ground of its great practical importance and of its special value as 

 discipline when studied .systematically. Systematic Botany will soon be 

 found to be a necessary adjunct if scientific precision is to be attained, 

 and other aspects of the study will ultimately find a place in the pro- 

 gramme, but function in connection with structure .should, we think, be 

 prominent in every part of the school course. 



In preparing a scheme of instruction in plant-physiology the teacher 

 will do well to take common objects, which will often engage the attention 

 of his pupils in after life, which can be procured in numbers without much 

 cost or labour, and which can be studied alive under natural conditions. 

 The question of the sufferings of the living objects, which is of the first 

 importance in some other branches of natural history, happily does not 

 concern the teacher of Botany. 



We can recommend nothing better for first lessons in plant-physiology 

 than the study of seedlings of common garden plants. A course of 

 lessons on seedlings can be so arranged as to lead the beginner to consider 

 attentively the nutrition of a green plant, the adaptation of the plant to 

 external circumstances, and the development of new parts. The course 

 should also train the manual skill of the pupils. Boxes and the simpler 

 kinds of chemical apparatus can be made in the school. The course 

 should bring in drawing to scale, the graphical representation of experi- 

 mental results, the care of garden beds, the care of water cultures, and 

 many other practical arts. It ought also to encourage the habit of close 

 observation, the habit of methodically comparing structures which in 

 different plants answer the same purpose, the love of experiment, and the 

 unwillingness (so characteristic of the scientific mind) to accept any 

 conclusion except as the result of an independent and careful judgment. 

 The study of seedlings will lead ijs to coijside^: starch-formation in the 



