The Home-Counties Nature-Study Exhibition. 215 
■“first-class certificate and prize ” were given, presumably by the 
school authorities! Clearly a rough-tongued inspector is wanted 
here. 
Two other departures from legitimate nature-study may be 
mentioned. First some very finished water-colour drawings of a 
cultivated Chrysanthemum, a Pelargonium, and a Calceolaria, 
excellent perhaps as artistic products, hut scarcely in place in this 
exhibition ; and secondly some collections of dried grasses on card¬ 
board without any names or descriptions—things of little or no 
educational value, and including, by the way, plants which are not 
grasses. There were also a good many other collections of flowers 
with names attached, English and Latin, sometimes wrongly spelt, 
reminding one more of the “floral albums” of the middle of last 
century than of modern nature-study. 
This hasty account of some of the primary school exhibits we 
are afraid contains a good deal more blame than praise. It was 
thought well to call attention to some of the dangers that should be 
avoided, but it must not be supposed that there was absent abundant 
and gratifying evidence of sound work on sound lines. Exhibits 
from Haslemere, from Peckham (including evidence of “ long 
distance journeys ” in pursuit of nature-study by teachers and 
scholars), from Bradfield, and from Dorking may be mentioned as 
examples. 
In the secondary school section, there was much good work. 
Among this, the exhibits from the Clapham High School for Girls, 
and from Bedales School (Petersfield) were pre-eminent. In both 
of these the work in surveying and the principles of map-making, 
than which there is no more interesting and valuable exercise, 
shewed excellent results. At Clapham, among other things, the 
elementary physiology of plants is evidently taught in a simple but 
thoroughly effective manner, and the exhibit included demonstrations 
of the principal life-processes of plants with the aid of simple home¬ 
made apparatus, but all thoroughly workmanlike and adequate. The 
various exhibits from Bedales shewed that here also the pursuit of 
nature-study is carried on in a most varied and thoroughly en¬ 
lightened manner. 
The geological maps and photographs from Tiffins’ Boys’ 
School, Kingston-on-Thames, constituted an excellent exhibit. This 
kind of work, giving an insight into the basis not only of scenery, 
but largely also of plant-distribution, might be much more wide¬ 
spread in country secondary schools. We must pass over a 
