210 



point of view, and a positive, constructive contribution toward 

 the solution of the problem of more effective botanical teaching. 



Chapter I. should be learned by heart and taken to heart by 

 every earnest teacher. The chapter-headings are substantially 

 the same as those in the first edition, while the appendix includes 

 the "Unit Course in Botany Formulated by a Committee of the 

 Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the North Cen- 

 tral States", as well as the "Course of the Botanical Society of 

 America and the College Entrance Examination Board". 



Teachers of all grades, experienced and inexperienced, cannot 



fail to derive both profit and inspiration from this admirable 



volume. 



C. Stuart Gager 



The Brooklyn Botanic Garden 



OF INTEREST TO TEACHERS 



Some Fallacies of Botany Teachers 



Among the fallacies enumerated by Joseph Y. Bergen in School 

 Science and Mathematics for December, 1909, the following para- 

 graphs seem of special interest. 



"There is beginning to be a vigorous demand, perhaps most 

 noticeable in parts of the middle west, for a highly 'practical,' 

 i. e., economic, kind of instruction in botany and zoology. It is 

 felt that, for one thing, the teaching should be so shaped as to 

 make use of the commonest garden and field plants to illustrate 

 plant anatomy and physiology. Of course no teacher in his 

 senses would hunt up a rare greenhouse orchid to demonstrate 

 a point which could be equally well shown by the use of a garden 

 lily, a hyacinth, or an onion. But, * * * there is a very specious 

 fallacy in the unqualified insistence on the use of common ma- 

 terial. * * * The cabbage is a most familiar plant, therefore let 

 us make stomata easy for him by giving him cabbage leaves to 

 histologize. Now a single trial would convince any unbiased 

 teacher that the familiar cabbage leaf is not nearly as easy a 

 subject for the study of stomata as are easily peeled leaves, like 

 those of the iris, or firm ones for cross sectioning, like those of 



