Proceedings of the Oliio State Academy of Science. 73 



The plant used may be a simple one, as the omnipresent 

 PleurococciLS, which unfortunately, like other plants having the 

 advantage of simplicity, is so small that the student cannot 

 imagine its minuteness. In spite of this difficulty, the advantages 

 of studying a simple plant first are so great that it seems best 

 to begin with the lower plants, giving the advantage of proceed- 

 ing from the undifferentiated to- the more complex. By study 

 en masse and with the microscope, the student soon comes to have 

 a fairly good knowledge of the morphology, physiology, and re- 

 production of this easily understood organism. He should be 

 asked tO' describe the structure of the protoplast and to state 

 the probable functions of its parts, only after he has seen them. 

 Then he should be required to read about the plant ; then should 

 follow a careful discussion in the class room with questioning 

 and quizzing. Finally, the student should be required to make an 

 outline, then a summary of his knowledge of the plant, the 

 latter being done without other aid than his laboratory drawings, 

 which should be referred to in the summary by numbers of 

 figures. Points observed but not drawn may be indicated by 

 (obs.) in parentheses. The order propsed is observation and 

 study of the plant, then reading, then class room work, and 

 finally the written summary. After the student has studied 

 other lower plants in similar fashion, Pleiirococciis should be com- 

 pared with one or more of them with respect to structure, 

 physiology, and reproduction, and each of the others studied 

 should be compared in the same manner, so that the work may 

 really be comparative morphology and physiology. 



Throughout the course, the work may well be attacked in 

 similar fashion, modified only by the increasing complexity of 

 the material studied. For instance, when the Bryophytes are 

 reached, the student should see and study some of these plants 

 first of all with the eye and the hand lens. Then should follow 

 the microscopic detail, enlivened by comparative morphology and 

 physiology. Never should the student attempt a description of 

 the plant or any part of it until all knowledge to be acquired by 

 direct observation is his own. Then may come the reading, 

 lecturing, quizzing, and summary as before, and a real knowledge 



