136 
CURRENT LITERATURE 
In the Educational Review for November Professor H. M. 
Richards, of Barnard College, discusses Botany in the College 
Course. Since lack of space prevents reprinting the entire 
article, the following brief notes are presented. After mention- 
ing the early emphasis on classification and terminology and the 
present common idea that “there is nothing of general impor- 
tance or of compelling interest in the study of plants," Professor 
Richards points out that "the pendulum has, perhaps, swung 
a little too far away from what has been called the "knowing 
of plants." So much so that students sometimes complain 
that their “course in botany has not given them enough oppor- 
tunity to learn the names of plants, thus placing the less experi- 
enced teacher in somewhat of a quandary as to whether it be 
better that the student be instructed in the fundamental prin- 
ciples of plant structure and behavior or that he simply be 
enabled to name the individual plants which may be seen in 
his walks abroad. There is, however, no doubt as to which is 
preferable from the standpoint of training and general educa- 
tion, and botanical teachers are to-day universally agreed that 
itis the principles which should be taught as affording the student 
a comprehensive outlook over a branch of knowledge which is 
in reality of the first importance to the human race. Ability 
to name the flowers is an interesting accomplishment for the 
amateur, but as a mere avocation it is not a pursuit which in 
itself often leads to any great intellectual advance for the student, 
and may degenerate into an occupation scarcely of more intrinsic 
value than the collecting of postage stamps.” 
This paper, however, was wiitten to show what botany is 
capable of as a means of scientific discipline. “For the very 
reason that botany is no longer merely the study of gross mor- 
phology largely expressed in terms of classification, there is less 
ease than there used to be in delimiting it sharply from other 
sciences,—not the least indeed of its advantages, educationally | 
speaking. Formerly there was commonly understood to be a 
fairly clear distinction between the exact experimental sciences, 
like physics and chemistry, and the purely observational ones 
