348 The American Naturalist. April 
[ d: ’ 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
Botany in the Secondary Schools.'—We have before us a 
most excellent guide to plant study, bearing the marks of faithful, con- 
scientious effort from title page to finish. No one who has had experi- 
ence in conducting courses in botany with college students will deny 
that a great deal of the instruction given in this science in secondary 
schools is loose, unscientific and crude to the last degree. Notwith- 
standing the recent attention given to this fact in scientific journals the 
evils have not yet by any means been entirely remedied. Indeed they 
frequently extend beyond the lower schools, even into the colleges and 
universities themselves. 
The author of this Guide is well-known as a thoroughly successful 
botanical teacher of many years experience, and all the statements 
which he makes have been subjected to practical laboratory tests. Two 
things are to be especially guarded against in a manual of this kind: 
Telling the student too much, and giving too meagre assistance. In 
the latter case, either discouragement results or undue attention is paid 
to minor points while important matters are either entirely overlooked, 
or studied without reference to their proportionate significance. Some 
teachers in their eagerness to avoid the first blunder fall into the second 
which is even worse. Professor Spalding has, in most cases, satis- 
factorily avoided both errors. 
The introduction contains timely suggestions to students and teach- 
ers, together with a well selected list of books of reference and labora- 
tory material. We wish, however, to take emphatic exception to the 
statement that “in every case the pupil is to be provided with the mate- 
rial used.” One of the principal objects in the study of any natural science 
should be to encourage the student to become acquainted with nature 
in its broadest sense, a knowledge to be obtained only by personal ex- 
ploration in woods and fields. As has been previously pointed out in 
various journals the modern tendency of scientific study is to lose sight 
of the naturalist in the almost exclusive attention given to laboratory 
work. The benefit to be gained from the study of a flower or plant 
brought by the teacher to his classes is one-sided and very incomplete, 
and should by all means be supplemented by the personal investiga- 
. 1 Guide to the Study of Common Plants, an Introduction to Botany. Volney 
M. Spalding, Professor of Botany in the University of Michigan. Second edit- 
tion, xxiii, 294 pp. Published by D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, 90 cents, postpaid. 
