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ment of a science. And if it were not impossible, certainly it 
would be absurd. It is for the instructor to make sure that 
the student does not waste his time and energy in floundering 
among problems that his experience could not enable him to 
solve, and at the same time to bear in mind that it is not simply 
information which the student needs. Even the best scholar 
will think he sees what he is told to see, be his instructor a book 
or a person, and if informed before he has made an attempt to 
investigate for himself, he gains no power to overcome difficulties 
in observation. In other words, it is the increase in power of a 
previously untrained faculty which makes this instruction, if 
properly carried out, profitable in the broadest sense. It is not 
to be supposed that the particular observational problems pre- 
sented to him in the laboratory will ever face the individual in 
the outside world; in all probability they will not; but the 
necessity of independent observation and of drawing conclusions 
therefrom certainly may face him, and he can meet them more 
successfully if his mind and his eye are habituated to work 
coórdinately. Preéminently in the laboratory is this training 
afforded; a slow process, perhaps, and an expensive one, too, 
educationally considered, but more than worth the cost both in 
time and energy.” 
Such work “resolves itself fundamentally into seeing things 
as they are, interpreting the observations by the simplest pro- 
cesses of clear thinking, and finally recording both the object 
itself and the conclusions drawn from it, with strict honesty. 
The net result is clear seeing, clear thinking, and a clear con- 
science." Emphasizing the common sense fact that the problems 
should be carefully chosen, lying within the range of possible 
interest yet never narrowed into a tiresome repetition of endeavor, 
the author passes to a ‘‘lesser though entirely legitimate purpose, 
namely, the increasing of the pleasurable appreciation of the 
things of the world, and consequently the enlargement of the 
ability for rational enjoyment of life." The stimulus botany 
offers to the imagination, “one of the most valuable assets of an 
individual in determining his success for himself and his value 
to the community." ; 
