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pupils should gain from the high school study of botany an abiding 

 and enthusiastic interest in the subject. For my part, I am very 

 much more interested in the question whether high school botany 

 so influences the mental habits and outlook of pupils that by this 

 study they are made citizens of more general culture and ability ; 

 and the question whether or not they remain enthusiastic students 

 of botany as such seems to me to be one of decidedly minor im- 

 portance. As an illustration, I look back upon my own high 

 school work in languages and mathematics as the most profitable 

 work in my preparation for college, and yet if my present inter- 

 est in these subjects is to be judged by the amount of time which 

 I have given to them in the last ten years I think I might reason- 

 ably ask why did not my high school studies of languages and 

 mathematics create a more lasting interest ? The question of 

 apparent interest is largely determined by the future application, 

 and it has happened that I have had no particular demand for 

 direct application of my high school Latin and Greek and mathe- 

 matics. However, I can trace quite definitely in my own mind 

 the valuable influence of such study upon my college and later 

 work and hence I feel satisfied that the general educational value 

 of the languages and mathematics study in the high school was 

 a sufficient justification of their presence in the curriculum. I am 

 forced to apply the same line of reasoning to science in the high 

 school, and hence I fail to see that we can judge the value of a 

 high school course on the basis of the pupils' lasting interest in 

 the subject-matter of the sciences studied. 



M. A. BiGELOW. 



Teachers College, Columbia University. 



Ill 



Before attempting to answer the question why the study of 

 botany in the high school does not more often create a lasting 

 interest in the subject, it may be pointed out that no other high 

 school subject is better circumstanced in this respect. In fact, if 

 we compare the interest taken in botany, aside from any money 

 there may be in it, with similar interests in chemistry, physics, 

 geology, or zoology as a whole, we shall find that botany is far 

 in the lead. 



