Botanical Teaching. 15 
Professor Miall’s system it is superseded by short accounts given 
by the students themselves at the end of the laboratory work, 
which are based upon their own observations. 
x 
The object of this note is to give a short sketch of a method 
which I have adopted during the past term in an advanced class 
attended by seven men and two women. During the last three 
years I arranged the practical work in courses on Anatomy, 
Gymnosperms and Pteridophytes, so that each member of the 
class undertook a separate piece of investigation, instead of working 
through a common syllabus. The practice has been for each 
individual to prepare a series of sections or other preparations 
illustrating definite structures, and then to write a concise account 
of the work, illustrated by sketches explanatory of the preparations; 
the sections and descriptive notes being eventually examined by 
the other members of the class. This method worked fairly well, 
but was not entirely satisfactory. Since learning more of Professor 
Miall’s system I have modified my plan, and as the experiment has 
been, on the whole, successful, I venture to describe in outline 
what we have done during the term, in the hope that suggestions 
may be received from fellow-teachers which will enable me to 
introduce improvements. 
The course was on the Pteridophyta, which were treated both 
morphologically and from a systematic standpoint. Fresh material 
from the Botanic Garden, supplemented by Herbarium sheets, was 
used in illustration of family and generic diagnostic characters, and 
for the purpose of demonstrating features of morphological and 
biological interest. Each student was expected to examine all the 
specimens and to make drawings of important external features; 
the anatomical work, on the other hand, was shared among the 
members of the class and dealt with in a manner which may be 
best described by means of a few examples of the actual investiga¬ 
tions undertaken by different students. The practical work was 
preceded by an hour’s lecture, but plants were often examined in 
the laboratory before they had been described in the lecture-room. 
A. spent several days in investigating the morphology of 
complete specimens of Botrychium Lunarici ; the best sections were 
fully labelled and placed in a tray which was accessible to the other 
students. On the completion of the work A. gave a short account 
