SCIENCE 



Feiday, April 28, 1911 



CONTENTS 

 Botanical Teaching : — 



On the Preparation of Botanical Teachers: 

 Professor Charles E. Bessey 633 



The Product of our Botanical Teaching: 

 Professor O. W. Caldwell 639 



Methods of Botanical Teaching: Professor 



P. E. Clements 642 



Discussion: Professor John M. Coulter, 

 Professor Frederick C. Newcombe 646 



Leonard P. Kinnicutt: Professor W. L. Jen- 

 nings 649 



Benry PicTcering Bowditch 651 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science 652 



Scientific Notes and N ews 652 



University and Educational News 656 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Faculty Business Accelerator: S. Museum 

 Labeling: Harlan I. Smith. Willces's 

 Antarctic Discoveries: Edwin Swift Balch 657 



Scientific BooTcs: — 



Putnam Anniversary Volume: Dr. Alfred 

 C. Haddon. Municipal Chemistry: Pro- 

 fessor J. H. Long 659 



Special Articles: — 



Experiences with the Grading System of 

 the University of Missouri : Professor Max 

 Meyer. An Efficient, and Mapid Mercury 

 Still : Professor Chas. T. Knipp 661 



The Association of American Geographers: 

 Professor Albert Perry Beigham 669 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Fourth Annual Meeting of the Illinois 

 State Academy of Science: Prank C. 

 Baker. The Biological Society of Wash- 

 ington: D. E. Lantz. The Botanical So- 

 ciety of Washington: Dr. W. W. Stock- 

 berger. The Anthropological Society of 

 WasMiigton: I. M. Casanowicz. The 

 American Chemical Society: C. M. Joyce . 669 



MSS. inteHded for publicsitloa and boots, etc., Intended for 

 review should be sest to the Editor of SciENCB, 6srrison-on- 

 Hodson. N. Y. 



BOTANICAL TEACSING^ 



I. ON THE PEEPABATION OP BOTANICAL 



TEACHERS 



Some montlis ago a suggestion was made 

 that at this dinner we should ask ourselves 

 the question : Why is it that with the enor- 

 mous classes we are having in botany there 

 is a marked dearth of properly trained 

 men who can serve as instructors in col- 

 leges and universities? 



In order to be sure that I was right in 

 regard to such a dearth I wrote to some- 

 thing like a dozen of the professors of 

 botany in prominent institutions in the 

 country, making the inquiry whether they 

 had noticed the same thing, and uniformly 

 the answer was that there seems to be a 

 shortage in the supply of material for 

 instructors (in the college sense) and 

 young men for other minor positions. 



I think there is no lack of men who are 

 ready to be professors of botany. I am 

 very certain that there is no trouble here, 

 but when a professor who knows what he 

 wants asks for a man who can take up this 

 work or that work as an instructor, the 

 situation is quite different. 



What becomes of the great number of 

 students Avho are in our classes ? The pro- 

 fessor of botany in the University of Min- 

 nesota tells me that he has over 500 stu- 

 dents in his beginning classes. In Ne- 

 braska we have about 350, and elsewhere I 

 find essentially the same thing. Enormous 

 classes are pursuing general botany, and 



' From the stenographic report of oral addresses 

 delivered at the conference on botanical teaching 

 at the dinner for botanists, Minneapolis, December 

 29, 1910. 



