The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-12-15

The New Botany.

In science things are being continually
made new, and in nothing has there
been more progress than in the teach
ing of botany, in order to connect the
science with the practical arts, and es-
pecially with agriculture. The Agri-
cultural College of Michigan takes great
pains to teach this science practically,
and its botanical professor, w. j. Beal,
is a most capable instructor and an able,
original and enthusiastic worker. His
methods are quite new and the results
of great value. The students under
him are started by having them ex-
anime flower, or seed, or plant
let, or branch, or bud-anything
in fact that is at hand at the
time the study begins. Students are
taught to study these much as Agassiz
taught his students first of all to OBJ
serve the scales of fishes; and when
they have completed their studies they
make reports of what they have seen
or found out before the class where
they are discussed, Professor Beal
himself directing all these results toward
correct and definite conclusions. No
order or textbook formula is followed,
only that of convenience. But after
these examinations have been made
and reported to the class then the
literature of the subject is consulted as
a sort of examining test. That Profess
sor Beal succeeds in imparting large
degree of his own enthusiasm to his
pupils is shown by the report of one of
his class exercises, as reported in the
Michigan HorticultTiSt. Mr. Garfield,
the editor, gives the following account
of the exercise:
cat the recent June meeting of the
Michigan State Horticultural Society,
convened in Lansing, one of the most
pleasant hours of the convention was
occupied by the members of Professor
Beal's class in botany. Seventeen
young ladies and gentlemen, fresh from
original work in the botanical labora-
tory, gave three-minute talks to the
assembled horticulturists upon topics
which they had been studying by the
aid of the microscope. The work these
young people are doing at the Agricul-
tural College was not attempted in any
of our colleges twelve years ago. They
are taught to be Independent of what
has been printed, and are placed at once
in the field of original investigation.
The glimpse they gave us of their
methods spoke well of the work Pro-
fessor Beal is doing. The subjects of
the talks given us were as follows: (D
Structure of leaf; (2) The mouthsSf
leaf; CD Young hairs of leaf; ~
Sting of a nettle; CO. Protoplasm in
motion; Co Palisade cells in a leaf;
ca Starch of common and wild Arizona
potato compared; (S) The framework
of leaf; Coz Fibers of cotton, flax and
wool compared; QO Why nuts are
hard; O1) Tough and brittle white ash
as seen magnified; Q2) Structure of a
grain of wheat; Q3) Pollen and its
growth; OD Ounce rust; 05) Corn
smut; O6) a study of common mould;
40 Effects of severe cold or heat on
plant cells and their contents. The
drawings made by the students and
employed in their explanations were
admirably executed, and on the whole
the entire exercise was as interesting
as anything ever presented to the So
ciety. The students were questioned
upon the topics they elaborated by the
I horticuturists present, and the answers
! given were prompt and clear"