strate for themselves, as with such plants as corn, wheat, beans, or the more common prolific weeds, the volume and extent of their reproductive energy, as measured by the number and amount by weight of their seeds. The relative prolificacy of representatives of tested varieties of the same cultivated species, such as soy beans and cow-peas, may be used for a comparative study of the relative expenditure of vegetative and reproductive energy. If plants in flower are accessible, such as can easily be hand-pollinated, such as corn, cotton or tobacco, many of the fruit trees, garden geraniums, etc., the time elapsing between pollination and the first signs of fertilization should be ascertained experimentally. Such experiments as these, combined with field experiments in cross and close fertilization and in the study of the adaptations thereto, vitalize for the pupils the whole study of the structures of reproduction, and of the scientific aspects of the reproductive process.

In fact, throughout the whole elementary botany course, every possible effort should be made to illustrate immediately, structure by function and function by structure, and to bring out the variations in structure which accompany variations in function under different habitat conditions. Students should be led especially to study the biological adaptations of plants to their environment in their own neighborhood. If some study of plant evolution is lost in doing this, the gain will be compensatory, since the pupils will come to realize that plants are vital and very variable biological organisms, with various dynamic activities, and not "typical" static structures, chiefly engaged in reproduction.

In any event, a beginning course in botany should strive to give students some conception of the luxuriance, richness of material, riotous abundance in color and form, and marvellous complexity of structure and adaptation which is the reality of fact in the plant world, instead of leaving him with a conception of pettiness in the materials offered, of triviality in the functions performed, and of dryness and stiff formality in the relationship, of the organisms. One way in which to avoid the sense of pettiness which

well-grown students not infrequently experience in being set to work upon the lower and smaller forms of life, is to increase greatly the number of forms and types for general comparative habit-study. In working with algae for example, a considerable supply of a wide variety of fresh-water forms collected locally, supplemented from a marine supply company, by as large an assemblage of species of the larger marine algae as can be afforded, coupled with a study of the use of the latter for food, fertilizers, etc., will do more for the student educationally than an intensive study of a few, unfortunately for the most part, species of insignificant size and of lesser economic importance. In the study of the lower forms, it should be made a general policy throughout, to secure for habit study a large variety of species of the forms worked with, in order to give the students, to some extent at least, a comparative, conception, a broader mental idea, of the groups taken as a whole.

In the study of the fungi, a secondary school course in botany should consist mainly in a study of plant diseases, with enough experimental work in growing cultures of important pathogenic organisms at least, to teach the student the nature of the invading fungi. That such a course can comprise all the forms necessary to include the various types of fungus morphology and spore reproduction, is sufficiently manifest. A course of this kind should leave the pupil knowing most of the commoner diseases of the ordinary farm, orchard and garden plants, and their means of prevention.

Such a rapid survey of the lower groups of plants, systematic rather than morphological in character, should likewise be followed by a systematic study of the more important orders and families of the seed plants. The work should here be more intensive than with the lower groups, for here is the opportunity to present in orderly sequence, in something of a connected series, the extraordinary array of the economic plants. All of the principal agricultural, forest and garden plants, the wild flowers, the poisonous species, the drug plants, and the weeds of the farm and the wayside, can now be thrown into orderly

purposes.

Third, in the extensive use of plants of economic value as the means through which to study plant structure and functions.

Toward the close of the year, and after the systematic work referred to, some simple work in the study of variation, and of the results of selection should be taken up. There is no better way of developing observation in young people, than by setting them to work collecting all the so-called "variations they can find of a number of species of plants. A little simple work in plotting variation curves is also easily possible with high-school students. A school garden can be made to afford a series of plants to be used in hybridization, and the pupils can readily be taught the necessary technique in plant breeding. Curiosity once aroused as to the outcome of crosses, and interest awakened in the possibility of originating new forms of plants, the high-school teacher will find such a summer occupation for the brightest pupils as may lead to serious and important results. Many a student in a farm neighborhood will be aroused thereby to undertake valuable work in the improvement of staple crops, such as will bring about economic results of value to an entire neighborhood. It is also perfectly easy to convey to pupils of this age a working knowledge of the elementary principles of breeding, sufficient to serve for a considerable range of practical purposes.

We may therefore conclude that a course in agricultural botany for secondary schools should differ from the ordinary academic course in the same subject in the following respects:

First, in the aim of the course, which is the economic advantage of the pupil rather than the professional array of the subject from the standpoint of discipline.

Second, in the means used for botanical instruction, the seed plants being largely em

In the hundreds of cultivated forms of grasses and forage plants, in the multitude of varieties of the grains, in the horde of the vegetables, in the manifold fruit-bearing plants of the orchards and gardens, in the wealth of valuable forest trees, ornamental garden plants and shrubbery, in the array of plants grown for fibers, for drugs, gums, resins, rubber, beverages, condiments, and spices in the parasites, poisonous and noxious plants and weeds, there exists a vast botanic garden of species, varieties and biotypes of plants. wild and cultivated, in which. every modification of form, and every biological adaptation of structure to environment is found. There is no type of root, stem, flower, or seed structure, generalized or specialized, that is not to be found among them. There is no mode of securing or preventing cross or close pollination which they do not exhibit. There is no mode of performance of a single physiological function in any type of habitat that they do not display. In this maze and medley of plants cultivated by man, and which carry the initial intrinsic interest of economic value, are limitless opportunities for developing in a beginning course in botany, fresh and interesting types of material for the study of the organs and tissues of plants, their work and their relation to soil and climatic environment. Here is the high school's, and especially the rural high school's opportunity in botany.

In all communities, and especially in rural communities, a course in botany should have three fundamental objects-to stimulate observation, to give such botanical knowledge and training as will be most useful, and to impart culture. Let us briefly consider these three leading motives.

First, as to the matter of observation. Our public school system is overburdened with second-hand learning. Ideas are furnished ready-made in books. The written word becomes a fetish. The child gets most of his

notions of the universe by reading what somebody else has said about it. Everything has to be subordinated to getting large masses of pupils "through the grades." The simplest way to do this is to cause large quantities of ready-made, predigested information to be memorized, recited upon and "passed" in examination. Originality, curiosity, spontaneity, are all effectually stamped out by this process, and the child, who is naturally an investigator to begin with, becomes in the end a mere passive recipient of prescribed orthodox information.

It is the duty of the biological sciences to step into the. school room, reawaken this latent curiosity, and fan the sparks of originality into the flame of investigation. Can. this best be done by a course in botany that is "scientific" from the adult standpoint, but that is totally lacking in vivid human interest from the point of view of young people. Shall we stimulate observation in eyes already grown accustomed to looking for the world in print, by carrying them still farther away from the domain of sense experience. we must compel young people to realize the vast range of nature about them that their eyes should be open to see. We must lead them first up to the plants, and only afterward inside of them. Does any one who has ever worked with young students, doubt for a moment that one of the surest ways of arousing and holding their interest in the plant world, is to open up new vistas of knowledge to them in those many plants which already claim the world's interest because of their usefulness or beauty.

So far as the teaching of botany as an observational subject is concerned, it is possible to say from personal experience, that the use of the straight observational method in an ordinary laboratory of elementary botany, conducted entirely without the use of any laboratory guides or outlines whatsoever, has proved an entirely successful experiment. The plants were placed before the students, with instructions to find out, first with the eyes, then with the simple microscope, and finally with the compound microscope, all that they could discover about them that

seemed in any way characteristic, and afterwards to describe what they had observed, both in writing and by sketches, in extent, measure and proportion as they saw fit, being held responsible for getting results, but not for the manner or form of getting them. It is surprising what an amount of spontaneous observation, original in form and substance, was evoked by this method. It can be confidentally asserted that public-school pupils just entering the high school, or high-school students just entering college, and spoiled for original thinking and observation by the continual taking of notes and following of outlines, can be taken in hand by this method and trained to observe nature.

Secondly, with regard to the imparting of such botanical knowledge as will be most useful, it would scarcely seem to demand discussion, that for the majority of secondaryschool pupils, that botanical training is most desirable which gives them the greatest possible amount of knowledge which can be made practically serviceable. The relation of plant physiology and structure to agriculture and horticulture, plant diseases, medicinal plants, weeds and their eradication, plant breeding, the botanical relationships of the chief families of the seed plants, and especially of the economic plants, are fields in botany that can be drawn upon for teaching purposes with the greatest profit.

A broader knowledge of the species and varieties of economic and ornamental forest and fruit trees, wild and cultivated, and of the wild and cultivated ornamental flowering plants, will also lead to an interest in introducing and growing many new and attractive forms of plant life in the community, and in the consequent adornment of homes monotonously devoid of variety and beauty.

Finally, as a means of enlightenment and of imparting culture, botany is a sadly neglected field. Between the teachers with ultrascientific proclivities and propensities, and those who are frank agronomists, the obvious opportunities of botany in the humanistic field have been extensively overlooked. The history of the origin and migrations of the cultivated plants, and the discovery and use

of plants in primitive culture for food, clothing and household purposes, leads directly into the domain of human history and anthropology.

The study of the origins of the names of plants and their folk-lore, in connection with the literature of wizardry, magic, necromancy, the healing art and poetry, furnishes an abundance of material of decided human interest and value.

The study of the plant as a machine, in the light of its adaptations of structure to habitat, to secure survival, and to effect fertilization and the distribution of seeds and spores, in its economy in the use of material, and in its conservation of resources, is a field of distinctively cultural value. Certainly the field study of the struggle of plant societies with one another for existence and for supremacy, and with their general biological and physical environment, furnishes material for thought, analogous to the study of social evolution, and from which social lessons can be derived.

Without in any way cheapening its disciplinary value as science, a great opportunity is thus open to elementary botany, of becoming a subject of far more practical value, interest and importance, both in the field of education, and in the development of agriculture.

HERBERT F. ROBERTS

UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA

GRANTS FOR RESEARCH OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

AT the annual meeting of the association in 1918 the Committee on Grants for Research was organized for the year 1919 as follows: Henry Crew, Chairman; N. L. Britton, W. B. Cannon, J. McK. Cattell, R. T. Chamberlin, L. I. Dublin, G. N. Lewis, G. H. Parker and Joel Stebbins, Secretary. The sum of four thousand dollars from the funds of the association was assigned by the council to the committee for distribution in support of investigations. The committee

did not hold a formal meeting, but transacted all of its business by correspondence, and by the middle of June had distributed the entire sum at its disposal in the following grants.

Astronomy

Five hundred dollars to Professor E. B. Frost, of the Yerkes Observatory, for the securing, measurement and reduction of stellar spectrograms. Additional assistance in this work with the 40-inch telescope will greatly increase the mass of results being accumulated concerning the motions of stars.

Physics

One hundred and fifty dollars to Professor A. L. Foley, of Indiana University, for experiments on the speed of sound very close to the source. This investigation is in extension of the important and rather remarkable results which Professor Foley has recently published in the Physical Review.

One hundred dollars to Professor Orin Tugman, of the University of Utah, to meet the cost of a monochromatic source of light to be used in finding the change of conductivity in a thin metallic film when exposed to ultra-violet light-a problem which has acquired new importance in view of the rapidly developing electronic theory.

One hundred and fifty dollars to Professor E. M. Terry, of the University of Wisconsin, for work on the modulation of radio-energy employed in wireless telephony.

One hundred dollars to Professor F. C. Blake, of the Ohio State University, for aid in prosecution of a study of electric waves and dielectric constants.

Chemistry

Three hundred and fifty dollars to Dr. Gerald L. Wendt, of the University of Chicago, for the investigation of the photochemical reactions of hydrogen and chlorine. He has been able to show that under the action of alpha rays and in the vacuum discharge tube hydrogen forms a chemically very active form, which probably has the formula H. From a valence point of view

the existence and even more so the properties and the method of formation-of this gas are of great interest. There is some evidence that chlorine is also activated by exposure to light, but the evidence is contradictory. The mechanism of the effect of ultra-violet radiation on chlorine, including the possibility of the existence of an ozone form of chlorine, will be investigated.

Geology

Two hundred and fifty dollars to the Seismological Society of America to enable the society to dispatch capable men to study the phenomena of earthquakes as promptly as possible after their occurrence. When an important earthquake has occurred a delay of even a few days in sending an experienced seismologist to the locus of the quake will usually mean that many important pieces of evidence have deteriorated in value or have been wholly destroyed. This grant has been made in recognition of the urgent need of the Seismological Society for a sum available for immediate use whenever there occurs an earthquake which promises to give important results.

Two hundred dollars to Dr. Roy L. Moodie, for the preparation of sections of fossil bones which show lesions of ancient disease, and for the making of photomicrographs of these sections. Dr. Moodie, by a careful study of the bones of ancient vertebrates, is succeeding in tracing many present diseases far back in the geological record. These discoveries which are opening up a new field-paleopathology-are arousing much interest both among geologists and among the members of the medical profession.

Zoology

Five hundred dollars to Professor C. H. Eigenmann, of Indiana University, to defray part of the expenses of the Irwin expedition to western South America. The object of this expedition was to collect the fresh-water fishes from parts of Peru, Bolivia and Chile and thereby to supply the necessary material for the study of important faunistic questions.

Two hundred dollars to Dr. P. W. Whiting, of Franklin and Marshall College, for investigations on the Mediterranean flourmoth and its hymenopterous parasite, hadrobracon. The money is being spent for cytological equip ment, breeding boxes, and apparatus for control of temperature and humidity. The work has thus far been carried on at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Somatic and germinal variations, sex determination, and sex ratio are being investigated.

Botany

Five hundred dollars to the editorial board of Botanical Abstracts for aid in establishing this new and important periodical, which has already met with much success and provides a long-needed method of bringing the current results of botanical investigation to the service of a great number of students.

One hundred dollars to Dr. Gilbert M. Smith, of the University of Wisconsin, for aid in a study of the plankton of the lakes of southwestern Ontario.

Anthropology

Two hundred dollars to Dr. Aleš Hrdlička for The American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Dr. W. H. Holmes, head curator of the department of anthropology of the U. S. National Museum, wrote as follows: "Referring to Dr. Hrdlička's request for financial aid in the publication of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, I take the liberty of seconding his request. The Journal fills a very important place in the field of anthropological science and is in the hands of our ablest students of this branch. The facts that at first the patrons of the Journal are necessarily limited in number and that the expenses of publication are just now nearly doubled will, I am sure, enlist your sympathy, and I sincerely trust that you may find it possible to lend the doctor a hand."

Social and Economic Science

Two hundred dollars to Miss Myra M. Hulst, of New Haven, Connecticut, for in