The Teaching of Elementary Botany 199 
decisions reached, though the latter may often be to the effect that 
more experiments or observations are needed. The group discussion 
entirely replaces lectures, and makes formal examinations un¬ 
necessary. It is held in the laboratory, whether plant-house, garden 
or field, whenever the progress of the work demands, and it profits 
greatly by the fact that materials and experiments are at hand for 
refining or checking statements and conclusions. 
While differences in setting, equipment, seasons and available 
teaching periods make it impossible to give a detailed procedure 
that will be generally applicable, the general plan of organizing and 
conducting the work will be similar for all. The division of a class 
into sections is based upon the conviction that the sympathy and 
understanding that should exist between the teacher and each one 
of his students are impossible in a section of more than 25 and can 
be most readily secured in one of 20 students. Everything con¬ 
sidered, the best arrangement of time consists of three 2-hour 
periods a week, provided this permits a half day for field work 
whenever needed. Under certain conditions two 3-hour periods will 
prove more convenient, but must be supplemented by visits to look 
after plants, make readings, etc. Since the teacher has no lecture or 
laboratory notebooks and no examination papers to burden him, 
he can give his best efforts to as many as three sections and still 
have half his time for investigation, a large part of which should be 
devoted to teaching methods and results. An elementary class of 
500 students would thus require seven or eight teachers, which 
seems not at all excessive in view of the quality of the results 
obtained. 
As has been already indicated, the first meeting of each section 
is given to the group discussion of the existing contacts of the 
students with plant processes and materials and to selecting those 
contacts that promise the greatest interest and values. In prac¬ 
tically all cases this has resulted in placing first the behaviour of 
plant and flower, followed closely by the uses that man makes of 
plants. Identification and herbarium-making of the traditional sort 
receive little sympathy, and are replaced by an understanding of 
evolution and relationship gained through the first-hand study of the 
life-history and pollination of flower types. In the spring the choice 
naturally inclines to germination and the growth of the seedling, in 
the autumn to the life-history and pollination of the flower. In 
either event it is overwhelmingly in favour of function and it turns 
to form and structure only as the class discovers that these are 
