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inside. What do you find ?’ — ‘ A lot of little stalks or things.’ ‘ Pull 
them off and count them.’ They find ten. Then show them the little 
dust-hags at the top, and finally the curiously constructed central 
column, and the carefully concealed seeds.” 
Mr. Wilson proposes then that the representatives of the most 
important families should he treated in the same way. Every pupil 
should he made to look carefully at the object he has before him, and 
to investigate personally into its peculiarities of form and structure. 
The representatives of the families should he given to them in an 
order based upon a plan judiciously worked out, and then, after a time, 
pupils would find out for themselves the key to a natural system of 
classification. 
Mr. Wilson’s method is evidently a purely educational one, and 
differs essentially from the plan adopted in most of our text-hooks, 
which are merely written to convey information. No doubt his method 
secures the best exercise of the faculty of observation, it leads the 
natural curiosity into a proper channel, and gives the pupil a taste 
for the beauty, the symmetry, and the order which are displayed in 
nature. The teacher, in following that method, secures all the benefit 
of the mental training, imparting to his pupils, at the same time, a 
great deal of useful information. 
No satisfactory results, however, can be arrived at unless the 
master is in the position to distribute a sufficient quantity of suitable 
material ; that is, he must be able to hand to each boy of his class at 
least one specimen of the plant that is the subject of his demonstration 
for the time being. To prove this, I refer again to the opinion of a 
recognised authority, Dr. Lindley, In the preface to his work on 
School Botany Dr. Lindley lays considerable stress upon the necessity 
of examining plants, and expresses himself as follows : — “ There is no 
method so certain to accustom young persons to estimate correctly the 
differences between one plant and another, and it is presumed no one 
will think of teaching botany without an ample supply of fresh 
specimens, which he may distribute amongst his class for the purpose 
of being examined and studied at leisure. Indeed it is useless to study 
botany unless this provision is made for the acquisition of those habits 
of observation which render natural science so peculiarly useful as a 
branch of mental training.” Elsewhere Dr. Lindley says: — “Profi- 
ciency in the art of describing plants is now, by almost common 
consent, amongst qualified examiners, regarded as one of the best tests 
of botanical knowledge, as it is most certainly the best of all guides to 
a sound practical knowledge of structure, and to accuracy of obser- 
vation.” 
I may also mention that the late Professor Henslow employed a 
similar method in teaching botany, with eminent success, both in his 
class at the University of Cambridge and in his parish school at Hitcham. 
He even went a step farther, and introduced a system of filling 
up schedules, which, to make use of Professor Oliver’s words in the 
preface to his excellent book on Elementary Botany, “ were designed to 
