Reconstruction of Elementary Botanical Teaching. 7 
how can they best be presented in a form which is at once interest¬ 
ing and educational ? The range suggested in the recent encyclical 
is too vast for the time at the disposal of elementary students : an 
attempt to accomplish all that is demanded would, I believe, end in 
failure. At the end of the course the students might feel com¬ 
petent to practise many useful arts based on botanical knowledge, 
but their acquaintance with the fundamentals of pure botanical 
science would, if one may suggest the possibility, be very much less 
satisfactory than under present conditions. My contention is that 
while it is most helpful to discuss possible means of improving our 
schemes of teaching, and most important that we should endeavour 
to mend our ways, our reconstruction programme is too destructive 
and advocates short cuts to the useful at the expense of thorough¬ 
ness. If a lecturer succeeds in awakening the interest of his 
students and assists them in their efforts to penetrate into the 
mysteries of plant-life he achieves something, but if he overburdens 
his lectures by attempting to meet the manifold future needs of his 
pupils he is doomed to failure. It is not the extent of information 
that is important but the quickening of the spirit of inquiry and the 
provision of a solid basis. 
T. F. W. M. Are you content with the present scale of pay¬ 
ment to botanists ? 
W. No, I cordially agree with your remarks on the pressing 
need of reform in this matter. I am also strongly in favour of the 
institution by Universities of pension funds which are urgently 
needed on general grounds and, one may add, the adoption of a 
pension scheme, carrying with it compulsory retirement, would no 
doubt accelerate the realisation of the new demands by facilitating 
the disappearance of teachers who have lost much of their plasticity 
and of their power of adapting themselves to revolutionary 
tendencies. 
T. F. W. M. You may have noticed that we call for a new 
spirit and new ideal. 
W. Yes, this demand is a familiar one; it recalls the exhorta¬ 
tions of preachers of other doctrines than those of natural science. 
As regards the more concrete proposals, I would suggest that the 
publication of an outline syllabus of an ideal course of lectures and 
practical work might serve a useful purpose. Teachers who wish 
to mend their ways would then see more clearly on what lines to 
proceed, and by a perusal of a syllabus which has stood the test of 
