134 
find out, by observation, the parts of a seed, can by no strain 
of words be called an experiment, and the wisdom of the author's 
plan, as stated in the Preface (p. 3), ‘їо present the morphological 
part also in the form of experiments," may be regarded as 
questionable from a pedagogical standpoint, as tending to give the 
pupil a quite erroneous notion of what an experiment really is. 
To call seeds, water, leaves, et cetera "apparatus," seems really 
unfortunate, for the pupil will surely have to abandon this notion 
entirely if he continues scientific studies їп more advanced grades. 
Incidentally, this material is omitted in the list of required 
apparatus on page 270. 
On page 38 mineral.nutrients are erroneously called ''plant 
foods," and the definition on page 52, ‘“ An embryo is an immature 
or undeveloped plant or animal," would include boys and sap- 
lings. On page 58, in an experiment “To find how to make the 
embryo plant begin to grow," the pupil is directed to plant seeds 
in sawdust in three tumblers, one of which is not watered, the 
second kept moist, and the third saturated by having the tumbler 
filled with water. The next direction is to place the tumblers 
where the seeds in all three will have the same amount of air (!) 
and heat. As the “conclusion,” the pupil is directed to ''state 
the effect of water on germination as shown by the experiment." 
The appended suggestion is for the pupil to visit a malt house 
and test the malt for starch and grape sugar, and then the ques- 
tion of water supply is again taken up. The “reference work" in 
connection with the subject of "heliotropism" (p. 101) is to 
"find out how beet sugar is obtained, tracing the process from 
seedtime to the manufactured product." Оп page тоо it is 
implied that the conclusion and the result of an experiment are 
synonymous. Оп pages 70-71, the heading of the work dealing 
with the retardation of growth by the removal of cotyledons 
from a germinating seed is “Effect of mutilation,” though the 
pupil is led to question the true significance of his experiment 
in a “query "; so also in connection with root-hairs, on page 104. 
It is implied on page 78 that, owing to diminished water supply, 
desert plants are of small stature, thus ignoring the existence 
of such large desert plants as the giant cactus. But such in- 
