Reconstruction of Elementary Botanical Teaching. 5 
aspects of genetics, for example, can be presented in an interesting 
form to a beginner who knows little or no botany, but the aim of 
the teacher should be to plan his elementary course so that 
students may be in a position both to appreciate the difficulties 
that will inevitably confront them and to use their knowledge of 
morphology and reproductive processes as a starting-point for 
further enquiry. The student must be in a position not only to 
state what is meant by genetics but to tackle the subject with 
intelligence. 
T. F. W. M. Is it not a mistake to burden students with 
anatomical facts which inspire no enthusiasm? 
W. The study of anatomy is not uninspiring particularly if 
treated, as far as possible, from a physiological point of view. It is 
easy for a man to make out for himself the structure of a plant 
organ ; he has the satisfaction of a discoverer who sees as the 
result of his own handiwork the complex mechanism of which the 
plant consists. 
T. F. \V. M. We are informed that you have given some 
attention to the study of fossil plants ; is this correct ? 
W. Yes. 
T. F. W. M. Has it ever occurred to you that the predilection 
for this subject on the part of not a few botanists in this country, 
including, we regret to add, some of the younger generation, has 
had a pernicious effect on British Botany ? Is it fitting that a 
teacher who deliberately chooses to spend the greater part of his 
leisure in endeavouring to interpret “ aged-dimmed tablets traced 
in doubtful writ ” should be entrusted with the training of men and 
women who wish to become botanists, gardeners, or planters of 
waste lands ? Is not your soul destroyed “ and every part about 
you blasted with antiquity ? ” Do you suppose that even the most 
intimate knowledge of the anatomy of a Lepidodendron would be of 
the very slightest value to anyone confronted with the problem, 
shall we say, of cultivating potatoes ? 
W. This aspect of paleobotany is one which I have not 
hitherto considered. I remember hearing a rumour many years 
ago that Professor Williamson had a Lepidodendron growing in his 
garden at Pallowfield, but if it was there it was very jealously 
guarded and I never met anyone who had actually seen the plant, 
nor do I know whether the method of cultivation employed was 
similar to that most suitable for potatoes. 
T. F. W. M. Have you ever heard of Ecology ? 
