TEACHERS DEPARTMENT. 
43 
THE TEACHERS DEPARTMENT. 
Edited by Professor C. Stuart Gager. 
It is not intended to make the Teachers Department a depart¬ 
ment of pedagogy. It is not for teachers in general, but rather 
for the teacher of botany in particular. Good botany teaching 
involves an intelligent comprehension of the underlying principles 
of instruction, combined with a thorough knowledge of botany 
and a lively interest in the science. Journals of pedagogy must 
deal with the former. It is the purpose of this department of 
the Plant World to foster the latter. Logically it is a depart¬ 
ment that ought to be maintained by teachers, and to them we 
freely offer our columns. We shall be glad to receive short 
notes and longer articles that will in any way help to the better 
teaching of botany. A description of a new experiment, a new 
piece of apparatus or a modification of something old, new ma¬ 
terial to demonstrate certain points, helpful suggestions for field 
and laboratory work, or anything of a like nature will all be of 
interest to a live teacher. 
We shall be glad, also, to welcome from teachers questions 
concerning anything that pertains to the teaching of botany in 
high school or normal school, and will endeavor, as far as possible, 
to publish answers to such queries. As far as practicable we 
shall be glad to print articles on topics specially asked for. We 
invite'all teachers of botany who read the Plant World to aid 
us in making this department practical and helpful. 
For the demonstration of positively geotropic shoots in 
winter, Bryophyllum crenatum, a near relative of the well-known 
species B. calycinnm which produces new plantlets from the 
sinuses of the crenate leaf margin,., is especially Suitable. The 
plants bloom here,* for the most part, about the middle of No¬ 
vember but can be held back for a considerable period by culti¬ 
vation at lower temperatures. Usually, in winter time, the only 
plant shoots at hand which are positively geotropic, are the 
flowers of Cyclamen persicum and other species. These are, how¬ 
ever, but poorly adapted for demonstration in the class or lecture 
* In the greenhouses of the Botanical Institute at Munich, Germany. 
