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The Arthur herbarium
Purdue University
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The Teaching of PlantP%si^o^^TTuTT!l3^in the
Nineteenth Century
Raymond E. Girton, Purdue University
The first issue of "The Purdue University Register" was for the
academic year of 1874-75 (1). Some thirteen courses in botany were
listed as taught by John Hussey, professor of botany and horticulture.
These courses ranged from 2 hours of Economic Botany to 10 hours of
"Cryptogamic Botany and Work in the Laboratory." Plant physiology
was not overlooked, for one 5-hour course was entitled "Physiological
and Structural Botany" and another was called "Experiments in Fertilization of Plants".
Something about the method of teaching botany is included in the
catalog section devoted to "Natural History". It reads "The instruction
in Botany will embrace all the principal branches of this science. After
three terms of descriptive and systematic Botany, the student will be
expected to do laboratory work, making use of the microscope in
Cryptogamic Botany and the study of the physiology of plants; proceeding to experiments in fertilization and to special topics. Herbarium work
will be required throughout the entire course."
This account also contains a list of "books of reference" which
includes "Wood's, Gray's, Youman's, Greene's, and Chapman's textbooks
on botany," as well as "Henslow's Botanical Charts," and the "Prodro-
mus" of DeCandole. Reference journals kept "in the Reading Room"
included "The Gardener's Monthly" and "The American Naturalist".
In the second year (1875-76) "The Annual Circular of Purdue University" (2) had this to say about the course dealing with plant physiology: "Structural and Physiological Botany, same as in the general course,
with the addition of the more recondite facts and principles, including
the character and relations of parts of seeds, morphology, facts and
methods of fertilization, origin of tissues, relations of plants to animals,
species, etc."
These descriptions continued to apply over a period of six years and
suggest that the courses were taught from year to year in much the
same manner during Professor Hussey's tenure.
The "Annual Register" for 1880-81 (3) carries the information that
Professor Hussey had resigned and that his successor was "Charles R.
Barnes, A.M., Instructor in Botany, Zoology, and Geology". As might
be expected, some changes occurred in the catalog description of Barnes'
courses in botany. We find: "The second term is devoted to Physiological
Botany, including the subjects of food, assimilation, and metastases,
growth, fertilization, influence of light and temperature, movements,
etc." This course was listed as "Physiological Botany, with experiments
and laboratory work."
In 1881-82 advanced work in plant physiology was offered and the
writing  of   a  thesis   indicated.    "The  remainder  of  the  term  will  be
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