A METHOD OF TEACHING ECONOMIC 
BOTANY 
Ву EDWARD S. BURGESS 
Hunter College 
It may be of interest to put on record a brief synopsis of the 
method of work in economic botany which I have worked out for 
Hunter College in New York City—aided by assistant teachers. 
The course is known as Biology 12, extends through one semester, 
and occupies 3 hours a week (or 5 when practicable). Students 
taking this course are young ladies, most of whom expect to teach 
in the public schools of this city. The conditions under which 
we work include the following: from 130 to 200 students to be 
provided for, to be met in divisions or laboratory-sections planned 
for 20 each, which are supplemented by lectures before a combi- 
nation of sections, with some use of lantern, and with exhibition 
of specimens additional to those of laboratory or class use. 
The students to be considered are city residents; and as usual 
with city residents, they have little opportunity for knowledge of 
the country or of the details of our flora. The other subjects of 
their college course call for about four fifths of their time or more, 
and prevent the use of sufficient time in excursion-work to give 
much of the desired knowledge of natural habitat. Excursions 
and field-work are taken, but necessarily the principal work is in 
the class-room. 
The relation of this course to others in the college is that it 
forms the second among the five half-year courses in botany re- 
quired from all students who select the natural science department. 
The succession of these required courses is: first, systematic botany 
(our Biology 11), February to June, with study of morphology and 
classification of Gymnosperms, Monocotyledons, and spring- 
flowering Polypetalae; second, economic botany (Biology 12), 
uses of plants combined with study of Gamopetalae, and with fall- 
flowering Polypetalae and Apetalae; third, plant physiology 
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