Reconstruction of Elementary Botanical Teaching, ioi 
That the position of examiners would become more difficult 
must be admitted. However, man is not made for examinations, 
but examinations for man ; and even those who do not hold with 
the popular outcry against the examination system could not 
discourage the adoption of a good method of botanical teaching on 
the ground that it would render less exact the examiner’s 
classification of students. In any case the difficulty is not 
insuperable. 
That the system would make it easier for the shirker to shirk 
is not a serious objection. We have to work for the better half 
of the students, rather than the worse, and at present far too much 
of the teacher’s energy is taken up with looking after the consciences 
of students who have not got any; and a conscience is far more 
likely to be generated by a curriculum which encourages the 
maximum of interest than by the constant application of a moral 
force majeure. 
I am, Sir, 
Your obedient servant, 
W. E. HILEY. 
49, Glenhouse Road, Eltham. 
24th February. 1918. 
WANTED THE FACTS AS TO WHAT IS ACTUALLY 
TAUGHT. 
To the Editor of the New Phytologist. 
Sir, 
In connection with the memorandum on the Reconstruction 
of Elementary Botanical Teaching I venture to express some 
opinions, and to offer some suggestions which I hope may be 
considered practical. 
The memorandum is very vigorously worded, and can hardly 
fail to convey the impression that British Botany is in a very 
parlous state indeed, and that this is attributable almost entirely 
to the nature of current elementary curricula, with regard to 
which it is urged that the study of plants from the point of view of 
function and relation to environment is practically neglected. 
Now it appears to me that in view of the activity of the 
“Nature Study ” movement during the past decade, resulting in 
the publication of numerous volumes dealing with plants essentially 
