skilled and trained teacher, otherwise the mass of facts that may be observed would be simply confusing. But take a few common seeds to begin with. We can "notice their sizes and shapes, the exact kinds and relative portions of all of the markings on the coats, and their relation to the parts of the embryo inside, the number of the coats, the full number of parts in the embryo, and the exact way they are put together; all afford, under the skilled teacher, fine materials for practice in observation." "Later the seeds may be germinated, and the exact place and mode of new structures, the position of newer leaves relatively to the older," the development of the root, and many other features may be noticed and compared in different plants. We can at once also vary the conditions under which these seeds are germinated. We can trace the influence of heat, light, air, moisture and gravitation. We can grow them at various temperatures, and show that seeds will just germinate at a certain minimum of heat, they will not germinate beyond a certain maximum, they will germinate best at a certain optimum. We can then discuss the question of the conditions under which seeds will keep this vitality. These hints will show that Botany gives abundant scope for accurate observation. This will scarcely be disputed, but I wanted further to show that, at all events for elementary work, a good deal of this can be done with material which is everywhere available, a few dozen seeds of common garden or farm plants being quite sufficient to keep a class usefully employed for many hours. In a similar manner one can go through a whole course of teaching Botany at schools without in many cases having to search for material for study ; besides, very few tools are required for it.

To make observations accurate, we should at every stage make the students draw the objects they see, and this is a point which all skilled teachers insist upon.

"Next among scientific instincts comes faith in causality, involving the belief that every phenomenon is yoked with preceding factors, combined with a desire to learn what these are." In practice, the observation of facts and the enquiry how they are caused, should never be separated, "and the cultivation of the habit of testing the connection of causes and effects by experiments is, therefore, a most important part of botanical training." Here, again, Botany offers facilities which no other science possesses. The dullest child, when observing germinating seeds, will be struck with the fact that the root always grows perpendicularly downwards, and the stem perpendicularly upwards. The every-day, dull mind will not bother further about this fact. It was so when his father germinated seeds, and will always be so. The intelligent man with true scientific instinct will, however, want to know the cause of it. I may at once say that the ultimate cause is not clearly discovered yet, but the immediate cause for making root and shoot grow in opposite directions is the attraction of the earth, gravitation. This was discovered by an Englishman, Andrew Knight. That he was right can easily be shown to a class of students, first, by placing germinating seeds on a perpendicular, slowly-revolving wheel, when the attraction of

the earth will be annulled and roots and shoots will grow in all directions, or, secondly, by placing them on a rapidly-revolving wheel, when the centrifugal force will take the place of gravitation, and the roots will grow outwards, and the shoots towards the centre. Again, the fact that seeds require air for their germination can, by a few simple experiments, be shown, and it can further be easily demonstrated that we have here a process going on which is very similar to the respiration in animals and man himself.

You can very easily see that in Botany of this description there is very little use for counting of stamens, or long names for shapes of leaves, or unpronounceable names for the plants themselves. Still, Botany must give the pupil a picture of the whole science, and the study of systematic Botany has also a great value. It should, in the first place, stimulate exact observation, and, when based on careful study of Morphology, it will give even the elementary student a remarkable instance of order in an apparently complex whole, and its study should further help the pupil, on the basis of exact dates, to acquire a power of terse, logical, complete expression.

Systematic Botany further brings us into touch with the native Flora in the country, and I ask you: Is it right that we call ourselves civilised, and let our children grow up without the slightest knowledge of the things that are commonest around us? Is it right that our children should not even get an intelligent glimpse of the richest Flora in the world with which they are surrounded? If, as is generally the case out here, all pure knowledge is despised, and this state of things continues, there is one thing quite certain, that the hordes of savages over whom we are supposed to rule will raise themselves to the intellectual level of the white population, and there can only be one result, and that is-there will be no room for a white population in South Africa. If it is quite certain that European nations owe their present superiority over other nations to a large extent to their study of subjects which do not immediately pay, we cannot afford to break away from a course that has so admirably succeeded in Europe. We hear so much about the progress of Japan, but it is a significant fact that the Japanese have paid just as much attention during recent years to pure Science as to applied Science. I may mention, in passing, that the most important fact discovered during recent years in Botany, was found and rightly interpreted by a Japanese Botanist.

Of course, in studying Systematic Botany, even in elementary courses, we should always remember that we are dealing with living beings. We must know "how plants live, why they have their shapes and colours, how each one fits so exactly its individual surroundings." This, in the hands of a trained teacher, and in a country like ours, gives endless possibilities for interesting pupils in their work, and the grouping of plants in a system of classification is, after this, not a mechanical piece of work done with great exertion by bored pupils, but is simply the orderly arrangement of facts with which the pupils are more or less familiar.

I will illustrate the meaning of these remarks by a very simple example. Take the flowers and fruits of an Aloe. From the textbook hitherto prescribed we learn learn "that the perianth is subcylindrical, straight, or curved, the segments more or less connate, three inner narrower and thinner than the outer ones. Stamens

hypogynous, mostly included in the tube. Ovary sessile, with numerous ovules. Fruit, a three-celled capsule, opening loculicidally. Shrubby or aborescent, succulent plants, with bitter juice," Now, this may be very interesting to some people, but must be an awful bore to a child.

etc.

The skilful teacher would have most of these facts already brought out before he comes to Systematic Botany. I will only mention a few of them. He will have referred to the shrubby or arborescent growth of many Aloes when speaking of shrubs and trees generally. The succulent character of these plants will be dealt with when speaking of adaptations of plants to dry climates. The bitter juice will be mentioned as one of the protective characters of plants. The forms and arrangement of the leaves form striking examples when dealing with this part of the subject. The flowers and fruits are, however, a regular godsend to the South African teacher.

The colour of the flowers is bright, and copious nectar is secreted by them. At once we jump to the conclusion that we have here an instance of a plant which is cross-pollinated by insects or birds. Let us look, therefore, whether this is the case. We find, without difficulty, that both sugar-birds and bees visit the flowers. In drawing flowers of different ages, we notice that those which have just opened only exhibit their stamens. These stamens discharge their pollen and then wither (in some species they are withdrawn altogether). About this time the style elongates and occupies eventually the same place which the pollen-bearing receptacles, the anthers, previously occupied. In other words, although the flower has both male and female organs, it is at first in a male state, and passes afterwards into the female state. The pollen of the flower can, under ordinary circumstances, never reach the stigma of the same flower. Some extraneous agency, birds or insects, is required to effect pollination. The teacher can now show the origin of the nectar, the position of the ovules. The floral diagram and the floral formula can be constructed. When this is done we have pretty well all the facts which I have quoted above, but the dry bones are now clothed with flesh.

But we have not done with the Aloe yet. The seeds afford an excellent illustration of a type of plant which is easily spread by the wind. They are exceedingly light, and present a large surface to the wind when discharged. Now, we must have noticed that the flowers are all pendulous. If the seed vessels, which open at the top, were also hanging down, the elaborate arrangements in the seeds to be spread about by the wind would be quite useless; they would probably all drop to the ground when there is no wind to

catch them. We notice, however, that when the flowers are pollinated and begin to wither, the flower-stalk straightens out, and all the seed vessels stand in an upright position. The seeds now, instead of dropping out by themselves, cannot get out at all, unless the seed vessels are violently shaken by the wind; in other words, when a seed becomes free there is the wind to carry it along. our Flora abounds with similar adaptations to external agencies, and once shown to intelligent children, there is no difficulty in interesting them in the different kinds of seed vessels and the mode they open. They will then perhaps even remember what a "loculicidal capsule

is.

Now,

The study of Botany in this country should have a special attraction, because it gives boundless enjoyment to its votaries, and is especially calculated to relieve the dullness of life on isolated farms; but it does more, it gives everybody who has even an elementary knowledge of it a chance of contributing to the development of the Science. Of course, there are, in the first place, numerous undescribed species to be discovered; but we know very little yet about the exact distribution of even our common plants, and everybody can assist in filling up that gap, and if we come to the Ecology of plants, their adaptations to their surroundings, everybody who has the requisite training and leisure can make a name for himself or herself by studying our native plants in that respect. It is an almost untrodden field, in which a rich harvest awaits the honest worker. There is a chance here especially for our teachers, because we can scarcely expect the ordinary pupil to carry on original investigations.

In all Sciences, the most far-reaching discoveries, from a practical point of view, have, generally speaking, been obtained as by-products of studies in pure Science. I need only remind you of the history of the Science of Electricity or to the history of the development of the coal-tar industry, or, to take an example from more recent times, the Röntgen rays were not discovered by a man who intended to place a most powerful aid into the hands of our surgeons, and yet he actually did so. But the point I would bring out is this, that their discovery has been quietly brought about, simply with a view of extending our knowledge. The results which made them famous were simply by-products of the main work. In a similar manner, many important advances in the practical application of a knowledge of Botany have been made by men quietly pursuing their studies from a purely theoretical point of view. Thus, the practical application and the development of Bacteriology had only become possible when a German Botanist, Prof. Cohn, had quietly studied Bacteria, and classified them from a purely morphological point of view, and when one of his pupils, the now well-known Prof. Koch, had devised methods to separate these very minute organisms and to grow them separately. Bacteriology can, therefore, be claimed to a large extent as a branch of applied Botany. In health and in sickness Bacteriology concerns everybody more than is usually believed, and a rudimentary knowledge of this Science, which, after

all, means nothing else but a rudimentary knowledge of the laws governing the lives of a multitude of primitive vegetable organisms, should be of the highest value to everybody, and should not be withheld from our youths. Closely connected with the knowledge of Bacteriology, in the restricted sense, is a knowledge of fermentative processes generally. This, again is a matter which deserves our attention, and there are no difficulties in imparting to boys and girls just enough knowledge of fermentation to make them realise the processes which go on in making of bread, cheese, wine, beer, and many other articles of common use, and make them also understand the processes by which fermentation can be avoided if not desired, and, mind all this this can be done by teaching the principles of Botany.

ance.

Botany is, as you know, in a way the handmaid of Medicine, and other useful applications of it could be mentioned, but I will only refer to one in particular-Agriculture, in the widest sense of the term, including Horticulture and Forestry. Agriculture is nothing but applied Botany, and success in Agriculture means in most cases the successful application of botanical principles to special cases. Now, the majority of the pupils of our schools, whether male or female, return to farms where Agriculture is of the utmost importLet me show by a few examples only (which, however, could be multiplied to a considerable extent) how a knowledge of Botany could be of direct use to them. Every student of Botany learns that ordinary green plants require certain inorganic materials if they are to grow at all. In manuring ground we supply deficiencies which either were there originally, or were caused by taking away crops. Knowing this, we should get our soils analysed to find out their deficiencies in order to make them good in a rational and economical manner. Yet many of our farmers go on year after year by rule of thumb, if they do manure, or they do not manure at all, because their fathers and grandfathers did not do so on the same plot of ground, quite forgetting that if there was a sufficient amount of the necessary materials for plant growth 20 or even 50 years ago, there is no guarantee that sufficient is left for the crops at the present time. A little knowledge of these matters would frequently turn a trifling expense into a big profit. Then there is the rotation of crops, so largely practised in Europe, to which our farmers would take more readily, to their great advantage, if they knew the principles which led to its adoption in other countries. Another important matter is the selection of seeds for sowing. One would think that every rational man would only sow the best seed and only pure seed, and yet it is a common practice in this country to reserve the tailings, the unsaleable seeds, for sowing. Thus seeds of crops, the vitality of which is impaired, are used for sowing, and mixed with them. are countless numbers of seeds of weeds. No wonder a farmer once said at a public meeting at Alexandria, "that farming was going to the dogs, for when he sowed wheat it turned into drabok" (a most objectionable grass). He was quite unconscious of the fact that he sowed year after year vast quantities of seeds of drabok, which