4 
A Botanical Curriculum. 
that stimulating atmosphere of unsolved or only partially solved 
problems, that he can he said to have had a scientific training 
worthy of the name. 
It is obvious that a course of the kind we have sketched can 
only be conducted by a specialist, who himself will usually have 
engaged in research on the special part of the subject he is teaching. 
In a well-equipped University there will naturally be a number of 
such specialists at work on original investigation, and available 
for advanced teaching. 
Each course should last one or perhaps two terms, according to the 
nature and scope of the particular field, and during this period the 
teacher should devote a great part, and the student the whole of his 
time to the subject. What is wanted is nothing less than 
“saturation” in the subject. As it seems now to be generally agreed 
that a candidate for an Honours degree in natural science should 
only be required to take one of its chief branches, at any rate that he 
should devote very much the greater part of his time to one such 
branch, it would be possible in this way for the student to take up 
four or five different branches of botany, and these should be so 
chosen as to give him some training, at least, in widely different 
fields. Thus it might be insisted that a man should go through at 
least one course which took him into the field, at least one which 
took him into the physiological laboratory, and so on. Supposing 
as might be the case in a large University the number of specialists 
available for teaching were large enough, the student might also be 
allowed a certain choice of subjects. The courses should be so 
arranged that an advanced teacher should only have to teach about 
one third of his time, say for one term in three, and the demand for 
a large part of his days during that term could then be made with 
justice and propriety, while he would be saved from that worst of the 
diseases incident to the teaching profession, the staleness and flat¬ 
ness consequent on teaching much while investigating and thinking 
little. These advanced teachers should be the holders of adequately 
but not necessarily very highly endowed posts—posts, that is, the 
emoluments of which should amount to a living wage, but should 
not be anything like so great as those of the chief Professor. 
The examinations, it need scarcely be said, would on this 
system, be strictly adapted to the courses which a student had 
actually been through. Each would be held soon after the end of a 
course. It would be absolutely necessary that the teacher should 
examine in each case, for the simple reason that no one else would be 
