4l> IOWA AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. [B 



REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY. 



BY J-.A/ PAMMEL, PROFESSOR. 



I have the honor to present my first annua] report as professor of botany. 

 That you may understand how this study is taught in the college, I will briefly 

 outline the work of this department. The freshmen begin the study of 

 botany in the second term. In this course they are expected to become fa- 

 miliar with roots, stems, leaves, and such terms as are used in descriptive 

 I nit any. thus leading up to the determination of our native plants. 



In an agricultural college it is proper that the subject of vegetable physi- 

 ology, and the diseases our crops are subject to, should receive considerable 

 attention. With this end in view the sophomore student familiarizes him- 

 self with some of the native plants of Iowa, making a collection of seventy 

 different species. Tn the laboratory the student takes up the minute anatomy 

 of plants and vegetable physiology. He learns something about the func- 

 tion of roots, stems and leaves, how the plant prepares its food, and how 

 these materials are conducted through the stem, leaf and root, where and 

 why these materials are stored away. In the second term special attention 

 is given to the lower forms of plant life, such as "rusts," "smuts." -'molds." 

 "mildews," and the diseases of cultivated plants that are most troublesome 

 to the farmer and horticulturist. 



In the veterinary course three terms of botany are required. In the sec- 

 ond term of the freshman year the students become familiar with the prin- 

 ciples upon which the subject of botany is founded. After having acquired 

 this elementary knowledge, they are ready to take up medicinal plants. In 

 this course it is intended to show the relationship, origin, and history of 

 ■some of the medicinal plants. Some of these are also studied in the labora- 

 tory. N<> veterinarian can call himself up with the times, unless he has 

 some knowledge of the various minute organisms that cause SO many of our 

 contagious diseases in man and the lower animals. It i> of the utmost import- 

 ance to the community that the contagious diseases of our domestic animals 

 should be recognized by the veterinarian, to prevent the loss of human life; 

 as such diseases as anthrax, glanders, and tuberculosis, produce fatal dis- 

 i ases in man as well as in our domestic animals. It is, therefore, important 

 that veterinary students should study these low vegetable organisms. To 

 accommodate these and other students whoare interested in this subject, the 

 Botanical department hi wed some of the apparatus for doing bac- 



teriological \\ ork. 



