p 
972 General Notes. [November, 
can himself conduct, make his own observation and prepare a report 
of the results. 
To my mind the scheme which I have here outlined rather than 
described, suggests at least a desirable method of teaching botany 
under the limitations named. It is capable of a great deal of 
modification as circumstances demand, and in the hands of a 
skillful teacher is likely to produce satisfactory results. In case 
the instructions end with the year, the student has acquired 
as large and useful a knowledge of plants as could reasonably be 
expected; and if he is to continue his studies further, he has an 
excellent foundation for thorough work in special subjects. 
I think we are all agreed there is no royal road to learning; 
and I am sure that to no subject is this truth more applicable than 
to botany. And in conclusion I would suggest that the value of 
any method of instruction may be tested, first, by the extent and 
accuracy of observation which it calls forth on the part of the 
student, and second, and chiefly, by the amount ‘of earnest and 
thorough work which it leads him to do.— Professor A. N. Prentiss, 
in American Horticulturist. 
Botanica. News.—A most important paper is now in course of 
publication in the Journal of the Linnean Society, beginning with 
the first number of Vol. xxr. It is an “ Enumeration of all the 
plants known from China proper, Formosa, Hainan, the Corea, 
- the Luchu archipelago, and the island of Hong Kong, together 
with their distribution and synonymy,” and will bear the title of 
“ Inde i i 
- tiime. In the same journal Dr. Vasey publishes a synopsis of 
late number of the Gar- 
dener’s Chronicle (Sept. 4) contains an excellent wood-cut of the 
nut-pine of Colorado (Pinus edulis) from a drawing by Sir J. Ps 
