TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 725 



Finally it is submitted that geop:raphy can be placed in its rightful position 

 only by tlie simnltanfoua application of a foiirfold policy : — 



(1) The encouragement of university schools of geography wliprp geographers 

 shall be made, of ^Yhom many -will become secondary teachers. 



(2) The appointment of "trained geographm's a-- teachers in onr secondary 

 schools, either for geography alone or for geography and general help in other 

 subiects. 



"(3) The general acceptance of a progression of method in the subject, not 

 expressed in detailed syllabuses issued by the State or other dominant authority, 

 ■which would tend to stereotype teaching, but in a tradition similar to that which 

 at different times has governed the teaching of language and mathematics. 



(4) The setting of examinations by expert geographical teachers. 



It is obvious that these four measures must be applied simultaneously, for 

 schools will not appoint specialist teachers unless there is a supply of them to 

 select from ; and yet a supply will not be forthcoming unless there be a promise 

 of posts, Dor is the teacher independent of the examiner or yet of the general 

 esteem of his subject based on a belief in the value of its methods. 



An Ounce of Fact. — The adoption of a new syllabus for geography in the 

 London Matriculation and of geography as an obligatory subject in the Inter^ 

 mediate Examination of the Faculty of Economics and Commerce, coupled with 

 the appointment of a holder of the diploma of the Oxford School of Geography 

 as teacher of the subject at University College School, London, has contributed to 

 results which are patent in the Pass List issued last month by the Londnu 

 University. 



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBEB 15, 

 The following Papers were read : — 



1. On the Relation and Importance of Botany to Geographical Science. 

 By Dr. Otto V. Darbishire. 



Plants play a very important part in the composition of the scenelry of oui* 

 earth. So much is this the case that a barren desert strikes us as renfiarkable, 

 chiefly on account of the absence of any vegetation. 



The professional geographer and traveller has generally at most only a very 

 slight acquaintance with any branch of botany. The problem before us is, AVouli 

 an acquaintance with certain branches of botany be of any scientific interest or 

 practical value to the geographer ? 



Botany and geography meet on common ground in the following branches of 

 botany : — 



(a) The geographical distribution of plant species. The distribution of plants 

 when grouped according to their natural affinities into natural orders, genera, or 

 species is seen to depend very generally on the distribution of temperature over 

 the earth's surface, without reference us a rule to local conditions. 



{b) The geographical distribution of plant forms, or ecolog}'. The plant form 

 is an expression of the way in which the plant body has adapted itself directly to 

 the external conditions under which the plant is living. It affords, therefore, to 

 a certain extent, an indication of what these conditions are. An association of 

 similar plant forms is called a formation. The presence of any of the three chief 

 kinds of formation, namely, forest land, grass land, and desert land, depends almost 

 entirely on the relation existing between the supply of water available for absorp- 

 tion by the plant root and the amount of water given off by the plant shoot. The 

 preponderating influence may be due to the climate (climatic formation) or the soil 

 (edaphic formation). Temperature generally has nq hand in the makiqg of the 

 plant form. 



