Apeil 28, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



641 



different years of these high schools as fol- 

 lows: first year 76, second year 94, third 

 year 26, fourth year 29. It is evident in 

 so far as these and other statistics go, that 

 something in the way of definiteness is be- 

 ginning to appear as to the year in which 

 botany is taught. But it is also to be noted 

 that in these schools botany appears in al- 

 most every possible relation to the other 

 sciences that are taught, and it is taught by 

 teachers who teach almost every possible 

 combination of subjects in the entire 

 curriculum. The sciences need more of 

 the same sort of consecutiveness that is 

 found in the languages, if we are to de- 

 velop more worthy scientific value. 



Furthermore, from the above-mentioned 

 investigation and others, it appears that 

 the courses in botany vary in nature from 

 systematic botany to a study of the anat- 

 omy and cytology which deal with plant 

 evolution. Surely the courses in secondary 

 schools need scientific study, unless it is 

 true that there is no part of the subject 

 and no particular organization that is best 

 for the education of beginners. I believe 

 we have a right to expect that a scientific 

 organization of the science for the second- 

 ary schools, in addition to conferring better 

 immediate results upon pupils, will lead 

 more of the students who have done well in 

 science to desire to continue these studies in 

 college. This would be of great advantage, 

 for we need more students who early in 

 life have begun to think botany and to 

 think in the scientific method. 



The nature of the preparation of our 

 graduate students is also a factor in our 

 product. This varies largely. In at least 

 some of the larger universities compara- 

 tively few of the graduates come from the 

 local undergraduate body. They have for 

 the most part had their training in the 

 smaller colleges, and those who come to the 

 university are of two classes — those who 



are called, and those who are sent. Some 

 of them, through the more general courses 

 of the smaller colleges, got their desire and 

 enthusiasm for botanical investigation, and 

 come to the university to continue that 

 study. They are chiefly those who give us 

 new botanical knowledge. Others, who 

 have not secured suitable positions, come to 

 the university and do graduate work as a 

 means of securing better employment, and 

 good botanists and good teachers sometimes 

 develop from this group. A compelling 

 desire to study botany is the motive most 

 likely to yield results of high order. 



3. Another factor in the efficiency of our 

 student product is found in the nature and 

 appropriateness of the courses into which 

 these students go when they come to col- 

 leges. Whether research or teaching is the 

 end to be secured, there are needed courses 

 in the general fundamentals of plant life 

 and structures, and in chemistry, physics, 

 physiography and general physiology. Too 

 early specialization is likely to produce a 

 narrow research student, and to render a 

 teacher unable to give to his students the 

 necessary vitality in his introduction to 

 general botany. In our revolt from the 

 special field of systematic botany, botan- 

 ists went to an extreme of even greater 

 specialization, so that sometimes students 

 in research in morphology are uninformed 

 regarding the relationships of the particu- 

 lar plants with which they work. And so 

 specialized are we at times that teachers in 

 small colleges and secondary teachers who 

 have had our so-called general courses must 

 teach a special field of botany because they 

 know no other. It is quite possible in some 

 cases to go into a secondary-school class in 

 botany and by observation of the nature of 

 the teacher's work, to determine the uni- 

 versity in which the teacher was trained. 

 This, of course, is not an argument against 

 research in which we aU believe most pro- 



