September 24. 1904. 
THE GARDENING WORLD . 
755 
he 0ardening\\/brld. 
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EDITORIAL NOTES. 
Nature Study at Newport. 
A second vacation course for teachers was 
given at the' Harper-Ada.ms Agricultural 
College, Newport, commencing - on the first 
Monday in August last. The Shropshire 
Education Committee give assistance to 
enable teachers to attend this course. The 
inaugural address was delivered by Mr. P. 
Hedworth Foulkeis, B.Sc., the principal. He 
stated that discussions: on educational 
matters during the past year had hardly been 
free from reference to the subject of nature 
study. He was of opinion that the subject 
had 1 made much more rapid progress in 
America than here, judging by the list of 
books that have come from the pens of 
American writers. These books are: very 
fully illustrated—maore so, in fact, than those 
of their English contemporaries. An exhibi¬ 
tion] that was held in Manchester two or 
three years ago formed a, most useful object- 
lesson to English teachers, as the exhibition 
was largely made up of exhibits from 
America., showing the results of the teaching 
there. He also, referred to the Nature Study 
Exhibition that was held at Regent’s: Park, 
London., in 1902, and again in June this year. 
The object of nature study, he said, was not 
to teach various sciences built, up on the 
different subjects, but to train, the child or 
student to observe and 1 reason. The whole 
object of it was to strengthen the power of 
observation and reasoning gradually upon 
the phenomena coming under' observation. 
A common mistake was to teach a child to 
pull flowers to pieces and learn the botanical 
names of the different parts. These, techni¬ 
calities, he thought., were likely to arouse 
antipathy in the child’s mind, rather than 
create an interest: in. the things: seen,. One 
of the American writers had divided his sub- 
jeot into three headings : (1) Perception.; 
(2) imagination ; (3) sensibility. He also 
summarised the report of the Nature Study 
Exhibition at Burlington House, London: 
(1) To cultivate the powers of cultivation and 
expression ; (2) to- train pupils to observe and 
love the forms in nature around them; (3) 
the fostering of the child’s own observation ; 
(4) to illustrate the life-history of plants and 
animals coming under notice; (5) to. make 
the outrobdoior recreation strictly voluntary ; 
(6) and a.s the mental faculty of the young 
has no place for abstractions, their reasoning 
can best, be developed on what they can see 
and handle. 
Plants for Identification. 
Dr. William Whitman Bailey, of Brown 
University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A., 
has an article in, the “ American Botanist ’’ 
on collecting plants for identification. He 
relates his experience of those who send him 
plants for identification, and, as might be 
expected, he has some correisipondents who. 
have a. hazy notion as to what portion of a 
plant, or what amount of it, should be sent 
tot enable a. botanist to. determinei what it 
is. He speaks of receiving mere snips of 
inflorescence without leaves, roots:, or fruit, 
and often merely in the bud state. In some 
instances the senders forcibly wipe off the 
sort of Ferns in, the innocent belief that the 
Ferns are badly diseased. Now any part of 
a plant, may be: necessary for identification 
if it does not happen to be familiar to the 
eyei, or the, memoiy of the botanist who re¬ 
ceives: it, but there are plants which lie may 
never have: seen ait, all or of which he may 
have but: a. hazy recollection. In such in¬ 
stances it: would be necessary to send at 
least perfect, flowers; and leaves, not to say 
(Bier parts, of the plant, otherwise it is im¬ 
possible: to ascertain what it, is for lack of 
material or evidence which botanical char¬ 
acters are necessary to: solve. In some cases 
two: or more species may be so closely allied 
that certain parts are absolutely necessary, 
in order to determine which one has been 
sent. Of course, we do not expect the un¬ 
initiated to, understand that, all these minute 
particulars are necessary. We may sa,y, 
also, that Dr. Bailey is speaking of specimens 
for the: University Herbarium, if said species 
happen to he Lacking. The: editor of the 
“ American Botanist: ” recalls a, young lady 
who. attended tliei botany classes and affirmed 
that the scholars' could identify any plant 
from a piece of the leaf. Wei are afraid, 
however, that, even in this extreme case it 
would not have been difficult, to foil every 
scholar in the claisis to identify any large 
number of any given flora, even if a whole 
leaf were sent. Some plants may bear half-a- 
dozen different: kinds of leaves on the same 
-tree or branch, so that one single leaf might 
be perfectly inadequate to identify the 
species. There are some plants—whole, 
orders in fact—of which it is necessary to, 
obtain fully developed fruit in order to de¬ 
termine the genus to which it belongs. These 
would include Crucifers, as, well a,s. Umbelli- 
fers, the Cabbage, and the Carrot family 
respectively. It, would he well for senders 
of plants for identification to send fairly 
representative .specimens of at, least flowers 
and Leaves, and to: send these packed in 
slightly damped moss, to keep them from 
shrivelling beyond recognition, in case there 
.should beany delay in reaching their destina¬ 
tion by post, 
A Fine Bouquet of Carnations. 
At the. Edinburgh flower show on the 14th 
inst, the opening ceremony was pieformed 
by the Marchioness of Linlithgow. After 
the ceremony she was presented with a 
bouquet, of the highly - popular Carnation, 
Mrs. Nicholson, which was made up by 
iMesisrs. Dicksons and Co., of Edinburgh. 
The Carnations were in splendid order, the 
rosy-pink flowers being fresh and sweet, even 
in, the second week of Sept,ember, a.s grown 
in the open air. The, bouquet was much 
prized by the Marchioness, not only for the 
beauty of the flowers, but its; neat and band- 
some construction. We understand that 
Mi-. John Douglas, one of the employees of 
the firm, had the making of this beautiful 
bouquet, thus showing that he is an adept 
at the making up of flowers in a, pleasing 
and attractive way. 
