T H E 
HEW PHYTOIiOGIST. 
Vol. XVII, Nos. 5 & 6. May & June, 1918. 
[Published June 20th, 1918.] 
THE RECONSTRUCTION OF 
ELEMENTARY BOTANICAL TEACHING. 
“STICK TO IT!” 
To the Editor of the New Phytologist. 
Dear Sir, 
Recently I happened to pick up the number of your journal 
containing “The Examination of a Witness,” and its form and 
subject, unusual in a scientific periodical, attracted my attention. 
So much interested was I, that 1 got hold of the preceding number 
containing “ The Reconstruction of Elementary Botanical Teach¬ 
ing ” and read it through. As a free lance now, though not without 
some experience of both teaching and being taught I cannot refrain 
from contributing to your discussion. 
Well, Sir, first of all I congratulate you warmly on having 
“ belled the cat.” What you have said wanted saying and wanted 
it badly. Whether it will have any practical result is another 
matter. If it is generally received in the spirit of “Witness” it 
certainly will not. He avoids meeting the essential points of your 
case and falls back on the stereotyped justification of the elementary 
course devoted mainly to comparative morphological detail. His 
claim that such detail represents “ the fundamentals of pure 
botanical science” is really astonishing at this time of day. His 
statement that you advocate “ short cuts to the useful at the 
expense of thoroughness” is not based, so far as I can discover, on 
anything in your article, the whole of which is a plea for concentration 
on fundamentals. The demand for “ a new spirit and a new ideal ” 
evidently annoys “ Witness ” acutely, and yet these are exactly what 
we want. He is right in saying it “recalls the exhortations of preachers 
of other doctrines than those of natural science.” A conviction of 
sin and a change of heart are what you and your co-signatories are 
seeking, hut if your appeal and the circumstances of the time together 
have no effect, I fear you will have to look elsewhere for develop¬ 
ment, and the disruption of botany, which you justly anticipate, may 
