A. C. Seward . 
14 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
To the Editor of the New Phytologist. 
Sir, 
I shall be very much obliged if any of your readers can give me 
information as to the best methods of staining and permanently mounting 
unicellular organisms as microscopic preparations. Having to deal with 
these minute organisms (e.g.: the Protococcoidese), in the course of my 
teaching work I find considerable difficulty in illustrating those points of 
structure which cannot be observed on living material, and in making 
permanent preparations of forms not easily obtainable at will. I want 
hints as to methods of dealing with such forms satisfactorily, not involving 
too elaborate or difficult technique, from someone who is more experienced 
than myself in such work. 
I am, Sir, 
Yours, etc., 
A Teacher. 
Dec. 20th, 1901. 
NOTE ON 
BOTANICAL TEACHING IN UNIVERSITY CLASSES, 
By A. C. Seward, F.R.S., 
University Lecturer in Botany , Cambridge. 
A T the Glasgow meeting of the British Association in 
September, 1901, the Botanical and Educational sections 
held a joint discussion on the teaching of Botany. One of the 
most valuable contributions on the subject of University Teaching 
was made by Professor Miall 1 of the Yorkshire College, Leeds, 
who gave an account of the methods which he adopts in an 
elementary course in Biology. Professor Miall expressed himself 
in favour of Laboratory practice as the most important part of 
teaching, and stated that his preference for this side of the work 
had led him to give up the formal lecture and to adopt a system 
very different from that usually followed by University teachers. 
The students begin their work in the laboratory, where they 
receive such assistance from demonstrators as enables them to 
employ the best practical methods; an adjournment is then made 
to the lecture-room, and a few of the students are called upon to 
give an account of their observations in the laboratory. Whereas 
in most courses, the lecture usually precedes the practical work, in 
^‘Nature,” Oct. 10, 1901. p. 593. 
