154 Muhlenbergia, Volume 5 



RECENT LITERATURE 



Laboratory Botany by Willard N. Clute. Ginn and Comp- 

 any, Boston. 1909. 



This neat little book of 177 pages is designed primarily for 

 use in high schools. I can probably give no better idea of its 

 usefulness than by quoting freely from the preface and intro- 

 duction, and by enumerating the subjects listed under the head 

 of contents. 



"The object in issuing this little manual is to furnish high- 

 school teachers and students with a set of definite questions cov- 

 ering a year's work in botany that will at once direct the stu- 

 dent to the structures he is to investigate and relieve the teacher 

 of much of the labor of directing such investigations. No apol- 

 ogy, therefore, is offered for the many and detailed questions, 

 somewhat extended experience with high-school pupils having 

 demonstrated that without specific questions the average pupil 

 is likely to omit many points which should be studied. 



"By the use of this or a similar list of questions, a great deal 

 of laboratory botany "teaches itself," leaving the teacher with 

 time to prepare such materials as are needed, to set up and take 

 down apparatus, and to assist such pupils as may be in need of 

 help. If desired, it is quite possible for any student, with this 

 book in hand, to work through the course for himself, taking as 

 much or as little time each day as he can spare from other stud- 

 ies. In class work also, the questions will be found to conduce 

 to a certain independence of the pupil, and prevent to a consid- 

 erable extent the copying of one from another. 



"In preparing the questions an effort has been made to word 

 them so that the pupil will be obliged to carefully examine for 

 himself the structures studied in order to obtain the answers. 

 Instead of requiring him to verify a set of statements (which he 

 is usually willing to accept without question), he is obliged to 

 observe, compare, and reason. No question is asked that can 

 not be answered from a study of easily obtained material. The 

 questions have been so arranged that if answered in their order, 

 the written work should make- a fairly clear and logical presen- 

 tation of each subject." 



