Volume 8 
Number 8 
The Plant World 
& iHaffa^tne of popular ^Sotanp 
AUGUST, 1905 
HOW MUCH PLANT PATHOLOGY OUGHT A 
TEACHER OF BOTANY TO KNOW? 
By Charles E. Bessey, 
Professor of Botany, the University of Nebraska. 
In answering this question I propose to suggest what I con¬ 
sider to be the minimum knowledge which he should have, and 
I shall bear in mind the limited time which every active teacher 
has for devoting to the special study of this subject. While it 
would be an excellent thing for him to know the subject thor¬ 
oughly, everyone realizes that this is as impossible at the present 
as for every man to be an expert in regard to the diseases which 
are likely to afflict his own body. It is probable that we shall 
always need the advice of a physician however well informed 
we may be in regard to human pathology, and yet it is true that 
a man who knows something in regard to the nature and origin 
of diseases is more likely to avoid them than if he were totally 
ignorant in regard to them. And so it is with the diseases of 
plants. It is not likely that every botanist will become an expert 
plant pathologist, but he will be a much more helpful teacher of 
botany if he knows some of the main facts and principles as to 
plant diseases and their treatment. 
Plants are Really Living Things. 
What then are the things that the teacher of botany ought to 
know? First of all he should know fully that a plant is a living 
thing. I know that in a certain way we all think of plants as 
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