BOTANY IN SCHOOLS. 
BY HEKMANH SCHMIDT, ESQ., 
One of the Masters of the JBrishane Grammar School. 
Paper read before the Queensland Philosophical Society, 
Thursday, 28th May, 1874. 
It is a trite remark that the study of plants is highly interesting 
and useful in many respects. The medicinal treasures of the vegetable 
kingdom, for instance, are far from being exhausted. It is more than 
probable that a Queensland botanist will yet have the satisfaction of 
hearing that a plant discovered by him has been found to be a most 
valuable remedy against maladies hitherto considered next to incurable. 
It is very possible, too, that our Queensland forests shelter now, in 
their midst, plants unknown, yet highly valuable for their fibres, their 
dyeing properties, their gum, &c. A similar remark applies to the 
agricultural and pastoral value of many native grasses and herbs. 
Various classes of people find peculiar charms in the study of 
plants, and look upon them each from their own point of view. The 
professional botanist, for instance, values the various species of plants 
in the same spirit as the artist values a fine original. To many a 
scientific botanist the practical utility of a plant is almost a secondary 
consideration. Other lovers of plants, again, wish to utilise the 
vegetable world, and thus to render direct services to their fellow 
men. And no one will doubt that the agricultural, the horticultural, 
and the forest botany, the cultivation of native species, the importation 
and acclimatisation of foreign ones, is of the utmost importance to 
the community at large. 
The artist searches in the vegetable kingdom for variety of form 
and color, when he wishes to get at the very masterpieces of beauty 
and grandeur. He is guided by taste, not by philosophical or practical 
considerations. 
The schoolmaster, again, should study and cultivate plants for 
several objects. His main purpose in doing so should be closely 
connected with his calling * as a teacher of youth ; yet he ought, if 
possible, to extend his botanical occupations, with the view of 
rendering them beneficial to the community in which he lives. 
With reference to education, however, we must bear in mind that 
education and information are matters entirely different in their 
nature and their effect. Education tends to develop and to cultivate 
