1887] : Editors’ Table. 59 
common name as Roman fennel, the same as Albertus Magnus 
used in the thirteenth century. It is classed among culinary 
herbs by Laurembergius’ in 1632,and in America by McMahon? 
in 1806 
In the seventeenth century Quintyne? records the use of the 
leaves in salads. e seeds now serve to flavor various liqueurs ; 
in Italy they appear in diverse pastries; in Germany they are put 
into bread; in England, in special bread, in rye bread, and even 
in cheese. In Malta, localities in Spain, France, Southern Italy, 
Germany, and Russia the plant is grown on a large scale for the 
seed, which enters commerce for use in flavoring medicines, etc. 
It is also grown in Northern India and Chili. 
The plant is indigenous to Asia Minor, the Greek islands, and 
Egypt, but is nowhere to be met with undoubtedly growing 
wild; and I have found no indication of- its having formed 
varieties under cultivation, except that Bauhin records one sort 
having rounder and smaller seeds than the common. 
(To be continued.) 
EDITORS’ TABLE. 
EDITORS: E. D. COPE AND J. S. KINGSLEY. 
In all of our four hundred colleges and universities, with a 
dozen conspicuous exceptions, the instruction in the biological 
sciences is but little more than a farce. College presidents and 
trustees seem to think that while some special knowledge is 
necessary for teaching the classics and mathematics, any one is 
competent to give instruction in botany and zoology. Indeed, it 
would even appear that they regard eminence as an investigator 
in either of these branches as an undesirable feature in an in- 
structor. The teachers of biology are mostly men without 
biological training, men whose ideas and methods are those 
of a generation ago, and who have no more idea of modern 
- science and modern scientific thought than have the poorest of 
the pupils who are unfortunate enough to come under them. 
Their whole idea of botany is “ analysis,’ while zoology is but 
® Laurembergius, Hort., 1632, 193. 2 McMahon, Am. Gard. Kal., 1806. ~ 
Quintyne, Complete Gard., 1693. 4 Joigneaux, Traité des Graines, 146. 
