x891.] Editorial. 37 
gain a grain of amusement from some of the examples that appear 
below. Still, it must be borne in mind that many thousand 
teachers have been imposed upon by the cupidity or stupidity of 
some one in authority. 
This year the study is botany, and the work is laid out for each 
month, but with the least possible expenditure of brain energy on 
the part of him who evolved the synopsis. He has taken from some 
other scheme a list of plants and months, and has shifted them about 
soas to meet the needs of the institutes, but without any regard to 
seasons. Thus in November the poor teachers are expected to 
study the dog-tooth violet! while in January the flower and 
fruit of the strawberry are the subjects of discussion. In Decem- 
ber the teachers will be searching their gardens for flowering 
tulips, and scanning the orchards for the beautiful blossoms of the 
apple and peach. Could any arrangement be more absurd ? 
Then the same wise head has thought that technical terms are 
too strong food for the poor school teacher, and he has therefore 
tried to translate them into the vernacular. The result can be 
imagined. In speaking of the mode of branching of the apple 
tree the term deliquescent is used, but this was too big, too 
abstruse; so the dictionary has been invoked and a synonym 
sought, and the poor teacher is requested to notice the “ solvent 
trunk” of the apple tree. 
Zoology was studied in the year 1889-90, and so the mischief 
is done. Still, we cannot refrain from calling attention to a few 
points. We miss, it is true, the incongruity between subject and 
season so prominent on the botanical side, but we find ample 
compensation in the nonsensical character of the questions. We 
can imagine some poor teacher turning over the pages of the 
zoology trying to find the meaning of the term “domologom” * (sic) 
which he or she is expected to define. Imagine the intellectual 
drill and the knowledge of zoology which one will get in learning 
the answers to the following questions selected from a hundred 
and fifty of similar character: Describe the classification of any 
branch of the animal ae In what animals do we first find 
1A friend thful of hot pudding. We are inclined to think it 
a misprint for homologous. 
