Practical Botany

Abstract

ABOUT twelve or fourteen years ago there occurred in England two events which have had so marked an influence on the development of scientific botany in this country that they are likely never to be lost sight of by our younger school of morphologists and physiologists. One of these events was the introduction into this country of the teaching of Prof. Sachs, of Würzburg; the second and even more important one was the institution by Mr. Thiselton Dyer of a course of botanical instruction at South Kensington on a scale never before attempted. Those who had the good fortune to attend Mr. Dyer's courses of practical botany in the well-known laboratory at what is now the Normal School of Science must always carry with them the stimulating remembrance of the thorough teaching there instituted; and the effect of the exact instruction and inspiriting demonstration so efficient at South Kensington can be obviously traced in the excellent teaching and work of the enthusiastic younger botanists of to-day. The influence took effect on the early development of the present productive botanical laboratories at Cambridge and elsewhere, and the stimulus has since radiated thence in all directions, as is shown not only by the numerous publications of the last eight or ten years, but also by contributions to the new journal, The Annals of Botany, just published by the Oxford Clarendon Press, and by the activity and discussions of the botanists at the recent brilliant meeting of the British Association in Manchester.

Practical Botany.

By F. O. Bower Sydney H. Vines. Part II. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1887.)