556 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1303 



strate for themselves, as with such plants as 

 corn, wheat, beans, or the more common pro- 

 lific weeds, the volume and extent of their 

 reproductive energy, as measured by the 

 number and amount by weight of their seeds. 

 The relative prolificacy of representatives of 

 tested varieties of the same cultivated species, 

 such as soy beans and cow-peas, may be used 

 for a comparative study of the relative ex- 

 penditure of vegetative and reproductive 

 energy. If plants in flower are accessible, such 

 as can easily be hand-pollinated, such as corn, 

 cotton or tobacco, many of the fruit trees, 

 garden geraniums, etc.-, the time elapsing be- 

 tween pollination and the first signs of fertil- 

 ization should be ascertained experimentally. 

 Such experiments as these, combined with 

 field experiments in cross and close fertiliza- 

 tion and in the study of the adaptations 

 thereto, vitalize for the pupils the whole study 

 of the structures of reproduction, and of the 

 scientific aspects of the reproductive process. 



In fact, throughout the whole elementary 

 botany course, every possible effort should be 

 made to illustrate immediately, structure by 

 function and function by structure, and to 

 bring out the variations in structure which 

 accompany variations in function under 

 different habitat conditions. Students should 

 be led especially to study the biological 

 adaptations of plants to their environment in 

 their own neighborhood. If some study of 

 plant evolution is lost in doing this, the gain 

 will be compensatory, since the pupils will 

 come to realize that plants are vital and very 

 variable biological organisms, with various 

 dynamic activities, and not " typical " static 

 structures, chiefly engaged in reproduction. 



In any event, a beginning course in botany 

 should strive to give students some con- 

 ception of the luxiu'iance, richness of mate- 

 rial, riotous abundance in color and form, 

 and marvellous complexity of structure and 

 adaptation which is the reality of fact in the 

 plant world, instead of leaving him with a 

 conception of pettiness in the materials 

 offered, of triviality in the functions per- 

 formed, and of dryness and stiff formality in 

 the relationship, of the organisms. One way 

 in which to avoid the sense of pettiness which 



well-grown students not infrequently experi- 

 ence in being set to work upon the lower and 

 smaller forms of life, is to increase greatly 

 the number of forms and types for general 

 comparative habit-study. In working with 

 algae for example, a considerable supply of a 

 wide variety of fresh-water forms collected 

 locally, supplemented from a marine supply 

 company, by as large an assemblage of species 

 of the larger marine algse as can be afforded, 

 coupled with a study of the use of the latter 

 for food, fertilizers, etc., will do more for the 

 student educationally than an intensive study 

 of a few, unfortunately for the most part, 

 species of insignificant size and of lesser eco- 

 nomic importance. In the study of the lower 

 forms, it should he made a general policy 

 throughout, to secure for habit study a large 

 variety of species of the forms worked with, 

 in order to give the students, to some extent 

 at least, a comjiarative, conception, a broader 

 mental idea, of the groups taken as a whole. 



In the study of the fungi, a secondary 

 school course in botany should consist mainly 

 in a study of plant diseases, with enough ex- 

 perimental work in growing cultures of im- 

 portant pathogenic organisms at least, to 

 teach the student the nature of the invading 

 fimgi. That such a course can comprise all 

 the forms necessary to include the various 

 types of fungus morphology and spore repro- 

 duction, is sufficiently manifest. A course of 

 this kind should leave the pupil knowing most 

 of the commoner diseases of the ordinary 

 farm, orchard and garden plants, and their 

 means of prevention. 



Such a rapid survey of the lower groups of 

 plants, systematic rather than morphological 

 in character, should likewise be followed by a 

 systematic study of the more important orders 

 and families of the seed plants. The work 

 should here be more intensive than with the 

 lower groups, for here is the opportunity to 

 present in orderly sequence, in something of 

 a connected series, the extraordinary array of 

 the economic plants. All of the principal 

 agricultural, forest and garden plants, the 

 wild flowers, the poisonous species, the drug 

 plants, and the weeds of the farm and the 

 wayside, can now be thrown into orderly 



