APRIL 19, 1901.] 
as a whole to colleges as a whole consti- 
tutes one of the most serious educational 
problems of the present time. So serious is 
it that not only has the National Educa- 
tional Association given its best energies 
for some years past to the endeavor to for- 
mulate standard national courses, but 
associations of colleges and preparatory 
schools, with large and influential member- 
ship, have been formed chiefly to grapple 
with it. All these efforts, be it noted, 
are not at all toward a uniform total re- 
quirement for all colleges, but simply to- 
ward a uniform general mode of treatment 
of each particular subject, and the colleges 
are left as free as before to make any desired 
permutations and combinations of subjects. 
The most important and practical step of 
all in this direction has recently been 
taken in the formation of the College En- 
trance Examination Board of the Middle 
States and Maryland, which is to have 
charge not only of the specifications of re- 
quirements in the individual subjects, but 
also of the uniform administration of those 
requirements through its own examina- 
tions. Steps have been taken, also, look- 
ing to the formation of a similar board for 
the New England States. Requirements 
have already been formulated by the former 
board in several subjects, but not yet in 
botany. Now, a question of immediate in- 
terest to us is this, what is to be the re- 
quirement adopted by these boards in 
botany? One would naturally expect that 
the course outlined by the Botanical Com- 
mittee of the National Educational Asso- 
ciation would be adopted ; but this course, 
although embodying many good features, 
is not adapted, nor was it intended, for 
immediate practical use. If the formula- 
tion of new courses is left to the advisers of 
the board for the Middle States and Mary- 
land, and to the New England Board, and 
to similar boards elsewhere, it is unlikely 
that uniformity will be secured ; for such 
SCIENCE. 
613 
boards, like individual colleges, will not 
only probably be shy of accepting one an- 
other’s requirements in toto, but also each 
board will be swayed by the particular views 
of the most prominent teacher consulted. 
On the other hand, a course carefully and 
comprehensively formulated by some cen- 
tral and representative scientific association, 
based upon the best of the previous work 
done in this direction, and elaborated with 
the cooperation of the leading teachers and 
of other botanical organizations throughout 
the country, will stand a chance of wide 
acceptance, and perhaps, too, is likely to 
be a better course than a more limited body 
could develop. Such a course must ob- 
viously be widely accepted in order to be of 
real use; but, once firmly established, it 
will not only permit schools to concentrate 
their energies upon a single and excellent 
method of preparation which will allow any 
student to enter any college and give a good 
education to those who do not, but also at 
the same time it will constitute a sort of 
standard of comparison and measure of . 
value, a definite ideal towards which am- 
bitious schools may work, and a stimulus 
to other colleges to adopt botany among 
their entrance subjects. It is the object of 
this paper to propose that this society un- 
dertake the formulation of such a standard 
or uniform entrance option in botany, and 
take steps to secure its adoption. 
It remains now to note briefly what we 
have to build upon in such a formulation, 
what conditions must be taken account of, 
and what practical steps may best be taken. 
The idea of astandard entrance option in 
botany is far from being new. It was im- 
plied in the well-known report of the Com- 
mittee on Secondary School Studies of the 
National Educational Association (com- 
monly known as the Committee of Ten). 
The recommendations of the botanical sec- 
tion of that committee had without doubt 
a powerful influence upon botanical teach- 
