556 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 224. 



we should agree with the views as to the nature 

 of lichens held by Dr. Schneider in order to en- 

 able us to appreciate the value of the service 

 which he has rendered to the cause of Lichen- 

 ology in bringing out first his large ' Text- 

 Book ' and next his ' Guide.' The latter is in- 

 tended for the use of beginners and amateurs, 

 and since it is the only book which is adapted 

 to their use it is of especial interest. It is now 

 possible for a student to take up the study of 

 these curious and very difiicult plants with a 

 reasonable hope of success. The Boston pub- 

 lisher, Whidden, has brought it out in an at- 

 tractive form. 



A TEXAS SCHOOL OF BOTANY. 



The welcome announcement is made that a 

 School of Botany has been established in the 

 University of Texas, to become operative with 

 the next University year. It will be under the 

 directorship of Professor Doctor William L. 

 Bray, of the chair of botany. The University 

 of Texas has been noted for its progressive 

 spirit, and this is but another illustration of the 

 wise policy of its administrators. We learn 

 that, in addition to the usual University instruc- 

 tion in morphology, physiology, ecology, etc., 

 especial attention will be given to the botanical 

 survey of the State. To this end the School of 

 Botany proposes to cooperate with local bota- 

 nists, secondary affiliated schools, scientific so- 

 cieties, etc., in all quarters of the State. Under 

 the direction and leadership of an energetic and 

 enthusiastic body of workers in the University, 

 the botanists of Texas may well hope to accom- 

 plish much. The State of Texas is to be con- 

 gratulated upon this forward step. 



FALSE ' AIDS ' IN BOTANY. 



This is the time of the year when the coun- 

 try is flooded with circulars describing all sorts 

 of ' aids ' for use in teaching or studying botany. 

 It must be that these worthless things are 

 bought by ignorant teachers or school boards, 

 for otherwise they would not be advertised so 

 freely. We have before us one of the old-style 

 ' Plant Analysis ' sheets, published by E. B. 

 Good, of Tifiin, Ohio, which proves that in 

 some portions of our country the botanical world 

 is supposed to have remained absolutely at rest 

 for the past twenty-five or thirty years. As a 



leaf from quite ancient history in botany one of 

 these sheets is interesting, but as an aid in 

 modern botany it is simply ridiculous. 



From J. M. Olcott, of Chicago, we have an- 

 other reminder of the past in the form of a per- 

 forated sheet of paper called ' A System of Plant 

 Study,' which we are told is a sample of the 

 sheets which make up a book ' containing space 

 for mounting and fully describing fifty-one 

 botanical specimens,' and in addition 'full 

 directions for collecting, pressing, mounting, 

 photographing, analyzing and preserving plant 

 forms and specimens.' Of course, no botanist 

 will have anything to do with such trash, but 

 for the non-botanical it may be well to say that 

 this is not the way that botanists make herbaria 

 and describe plants. The pupil who is so un- 

 fortunate as to use such an ' aid ' will have to 

 unlearn practically everything he learns from it. 



By all odds the worst thing which has come 

 to our attention recently is the ' Teacher's 

 Botanical Aid,' sent out by the Western Publish- 

 ing House of Chicago, and consisting of twenty- 

 eight charts, about two feet by three, on which 

 are rough copies of many of the illustrations 

 found in the older text-books of botany. The 

 copying has been done by careless or incompe- 

 tent hands, so that, in spite of the author's 

 statement that they ' will prove a direct aid iu 

 teaching drawing,' we are compelled to say 

 that they are not only inaccurate botanically, 

 but quite shocking from the artistic standpoint. 

 The author intends these charts to be used in 

 Nature Study, so that we are to have our chil- 

 dren's time taken up by 'reciting' from these 

 drawings under the impression that they are 

 studying Nature. The teachers of Nature 

 Study who know Nature, and ' who have de- 

 pended for years upon their own resources ' (to 

 quote the author's words), will not think of put- 

 ting these charts between the pupil and Nature, 

 but we fear that the unprepared and uninformed 

 may be induced to use them. If the chai-ts 

 were accurately drawn they would be of doubt- 

 ful value in Nature Study, but with all their 

 glaring inaccuracies they are worse than use- 

 less. 



MINNESOTA BOTANICAL STUDIES. 



No Other State in the Union can boast of such 

 high class work in botany as that which is pub- 



