EDUCATIONAL GARDENS. 



57 



children, to whom more advanced instruction can be given. The 

 utilitarian aspect is also kept in view, the children being encouraged 

 to earn some money by means of the produce raised in the gardens or 

 allotments. Moreover, it must never be forgotten that development of 

 the brain proceeds pari passu with increasing agility of the muscles. 



In secondary schools many of the same principles may be aimed 

 at as in the public elementary schools, although the decorative side 

 of the garden as opposed to its purely economic aspect receives greater 

 consideration. Infinite variety of management will suggest itself 

 to the instructor with imagination. Kipling's poem " The Glory of 

 the Garden " will open children's eyes to the romance associated 

 with even a child's plot of flowers and vegetables. 



A number of excellent manuals have been published giving full 

 details as to the management of gardens in which the teaching of 

 elementary horticulture is the main object in view. 



(b) Botany. 



The School Garden may also be planned to subserve the teaching 

 of botany, and will go far to give life and interest to that science. Plots 

 may be laid out so as to illustrate the natural orders of the vegetable 

 kingdom, excursions being organized in search of plants required 

 to fill gaps. With the garden may be associated an herbarium in 

 which are preserved specimens for use during the winter months when 

 Nature is resting. 



Such a garden will provide a regular supply of plants for dissection 

 and illustration, thus promoting the habit of personal examination 

 of plants in lieu of reliance on second-hand authority, as represented 

 by the printed book and picture. 



The fundamental phenomena of vegetable physiology form an 

 admirable introduction to those of animal, including human, 

 physiology, throwing a flood of light on such problems as growth, 

 circulation, respiration, digestion, nutrition, and reproduction. 



Incidentally such a botanical garden will also help to illustrate 

 principles of geology, of climate, of meteorology, of plant distribution, 

 and so forth. 



(c) Industry and Commerce. 



Lastly, an Educational Garden may be used for giving instruction 

 in the principal plants used in industry and commerce. This 

 suggestion is somewhat novel, and may therefore be described in 

 greater detail. Moreover, this form of Educational Garden has been 

 in actual operation for several years and may, therefore, be said to 

 have passed the experimental stage. 



A brief account of the scheme as carried out at Westfield, Reading, 

 may be of interest. The object in view is to give the public, especially 

 teachers and children, an opportunity to study some of the more 

 important plants used in industry and commerce. The scheme 

 comprises four sections. 



