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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 879 



vestigation; and he was conscious every time 

 he came back to the classroom from his pri- 

 vate laboratory or from the library that he 

 was better fitted for his work and had a 

 keener relish for it. For some teachers in- 

 vestigation is as much a tonic as is a pleasure 

 trip or the round of social enjoyment for 

 others. 



Whether the teacher's investigation should 

 extend far beyond the field of his teaching is 

 •a. question for each one to consider for him- 

 •self. Certainly the college teacher of botany 

 may well include in his investigation many 

 "things which will probably never be used in 

 "the classroom, but which round out his knowl- 

 'edge of his subject, make him a better teacher, 

 ■and may be drawn upon if needed. But his 

 investigation should be secondary to his 

 'teaching and should be closely enough con- 

 nected with it, at least in its initial stages, so 

 that some of the facts ascertained may bear 

 directly on the teaching. But if he be an 

 investigator in the best sense, he will eventu- 

 ally push his investigation to the limits of 

 human knowledge in some direction. His in- 

 vestigation now becomes real research. The 

 question now is whether he shall continue or 

 stop. He certainly should do the latter if he 

 does not regard his research of considerable 

 human interest and if his enthusiasm for such 

 isolated investigation does not make it a 

 pleasure rather than a burden for part of his 

 spare hours. If he has this faith in the value 

 of his work and his enthusiasm inspires him 

 to continue, the institution for which he 

 works can afford to lighten his burden some- 

 what, if possible, for the benefit that such ex- 

 ample will have on other teachers and on stu- 

 dents in encouraging them to scholarly at- 

 tainment. Some kinds of research can be 

 carried forward on two or three hours' work 

 each day; and the teacher can easily learn to 

 drop his research and go to his students re- 

 freshed and the more ready to work with them 

 because of the keen mental gymnastics con- 

 nected with his own laborious study, the 

 "teaching by its different and disconnected na- 

 ture seeming like a diversion. The man of 

 ^strong body and active mind can carry the in- 



vestigation forward and still keep abreast 

 his profession as a teacher. 



The teaching being of prime importance, 

 the college teacher's botanical investigation 

 should never be required to be done at a 

 given time, and he should be free to drop it 

 for a day, a week or a month whenever his 

 teaching requires all of his time. Teaching 

 is an aid to research, and research is an aid 

 to teaching; and there are lines of research 

 that touch college teaching as well as uni- 

 versity teaching. The university teacher may 

 make research his main work; the college 

 teacher should never. No college teacher 

 should be chosen or retained mainly on ac- 

 count of his ability as an investigator, but 

 encouraging a college teacher in a limited 

 amount of research is a different matter. No 

 science stimulates to investigation and re- 

 search more than botany, and the college 

 teacher of this science who is not an investi- 

 gator is scarcely worthy of the profession. 



But what of botanical investigation by the 

 college student? No college student should 

 be thrown on his own resources in investiga- 

 tion to the exclusion of regular instruction 

 after two or three years of botanical study. The 

 student is too narrow at this time and will 

 remain so if he begins to give much of his 

 time to investigation. But the writer be- 

 lieves that some young people should begin 

 specialization in the late teens and that in 

 rare instances a part of this specialization 

 may well be investigation, even for the under- 

 graduate student. And why not? We often 

 start the child at music as early as five or six 

 years, but we too commonly attempt to thwart 

 the desire of the youth for investigation until 

 the last bit of enthusiasm and initiative is 

 crushed. Some would smother it in the 

 brightest and best prepared undergraduate 

 and expect it to burst into a living flame soon 

 after the student reaches the university. The 

 rare undergraduate who has the desire, abil- 

 ity and time for investigation of some definite 

 botanical problem and who has a teacher who 

 can not or will not encourage and direct him 

 is unfortunate. It is a misfortune that some 

 college teachers of botany are not investiga- 



