With respect to demand and supply in the industrial and professional fields, the board would base its advice on the facts returned by statistical and labor bureaus, and on information furnished by the boards of other cities. Knowledge regarding tendency of demand, rather than its strictly mathematical measure, would be the aim in dealing with this matter. And thus would be established an intimate logical connection between demand and supply in occupations, to lack of which may be traced many present evils in every advanced society. The fact of degree in demand might necessitate, oftentimes, a policy of expedience in the advice offered; and, at such times, inclination and inchoate fitness would have to be made secondary to demand. But the turning point would be made at the right time, and the fatuity of preparation for a hopeless uncertainty would be conclusively demonstrated.

The foregoing plan, if it deserves to be called a plan, embraces the merest outline, and, as such, makes no attempt to deal with the details of methods. These would be developed properly only through practical trial, but with increasing effectiveness and influence for good on both the individual and society. And the general adoption of such a plan would go a long way toward solving some of the most vexatious of present day problems.

AMBIGUITY IN PLANT NOMENCLATURE.

BESSIE L. PUTNAM, HARMONSBURG, PENN.

The humorous account of "A Hunt for the Shamrock," which appeared some months ago in EDUCATION, is suggestive of a combination of causes which might be responsible for disappointment in such a quest. It is possible that those interrogated as to the whereabouts of the plant were more susceptible to the charms of a hill of thrifty potatoes than of any vegetation devoid of utility, no matter with how much historical or poetic lore it might be invested; yet, lacking courage to pronounce the three little words, "I don't know" (said by some one to be the most difficult in the English language), or, more probable, endowed with a generous supply of innate Hibernian politeness, their desire to oblige the visitor was gratified, even though at the expense of veracity.

the academy, and no room for any other secondary schools than the public high schools. There is some plausibility in this view. In some of the western states it is carried to the extreme that the state should be the sole educator, and assume responsibility for all the educational appliances, from the kindergarten and primary school to the college and university. The objections that might be urged against such a scheme are numerous and weighty, but they do not come within the scope of my present purpose. As matters stand here and now in New England, this is hardly a practical question. As to the profitableness of the seminary and academy, as they now exist among us, I desire to offer several suggestions.

It is to be noted that there are two classes of these institutions. The first class comprises those of the original type, which, having a substantial endowment from the first, have continued to hold the local patronage, but have not much increased it. The excellent character established and maintained by some of these has drawn a certain number of students from a distance; but for the most part the attendance is comparatively small, though large enough to justify their continuance, and, in the estimation of many, their value is greater because of this moderate and, perhaps, more select patronage. Some of those academies which still hold on in less densely populated communities, have made such. arrangements with the towns where they are located as to perform the work of the high schools at a less expense, and frequently more satisfactorily than would be the case with an exclusive public school, and at the same time maintain their composite character, and are patronized by a considerable number of students from abroad. Of this class are the Marion, Leicester, Lawrence, Dummer and some other academies. It is possible that some of these would be quite as serviceable if an adjustment could be made by which they would legally become parts of the public system. But in some instances, if not in all, there is a certain prestige connected with their previous history which their friends do not like to have them lose. Probably absorption of this kind has nearly reached its limit.

The academies of the other class have a somewhat broader scope and a more important character. They draw their students from a larger field-some of them from places a thousand or two thousand miles distant, providing for them homes as well

as instruction, attending to wants other than intellectual, and looking after their welfare much more particularly than is expected in a wholly public school. Of this class are the Phillips Academies at Andover and Exeter, Cushing Academy at Ashburnham, St. Johnsbury Academy, the Seminary at Kents Hill in Maine, St. Paul's School in Concord, N. H., Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Williston Seminary at Easthampton and a score of others. Some of these were founded as denominational institutions, and denominational influence still supports them to a certain extent, though scarcely any of them retain anything of a sectarian character. That there is a demand for schools of this kind is amply evidenced by the large patronage they still receive. Some of the older of these schools were never so thronged with students as now, while those more recently incorporated are numerously patronized. In all of them, the courses of study are first more numerous and more extensive than those of the New England Colleges of one hundred years. ago. Indeed, there is little question that the education received is really superior to that of the college in the early years of the present century. Their endowments and facilities are constantly increasing, and there is no indication of anything like decadence.

The causes of their present and prospective prosperity and popularity are not far to seek. In the first place, while the public high schools have naturally and properly taken up the work formerly done by a considerable number of academies, there is yet much that they cannot do, or cannot do so well as can be done in the academies. There are in the state of Massachusetts at present more than two hundred high schools, most of which furnish certain facilities in the way of college preparatory instruction. Of these, twenty-five or thirty, located in the cities, do their work substantially as well as the better class of academies. Of the others, while many of them, under favorable conditions, produce fairly good results and give their pupils such training as will enable them to matriculate, the grade of scholarship, as a whole, is appreciably below that of the acadamies last referred to. This is not the fault of the schools nor of their instructors, but is in the very nature of things. A high school in a community of from two to three thousand inhabitants, would not have the facilities for such extensive and particular instruction in the required

studies as one in a community of twelve thousand and upwards. The number of preparatory pupils in such a smaller community would be at the best very moderate, and it would not be wise to give a disproportionate amount of attention to them. In any case, a considerable number would go to the academies rather than to the high schools of the smaller communities. It is, moreover, to be noted, that there are a good many remote towns, sparsely inhabited, where the only schools readily accessible are the district and grammar schools. The children of families living in such neighborhoods, and deriving anything more than the most rudimentary education, must go away from home, and usually, the most economical as well as otherwise most advantageous resort would be to an academy, especially if it be a boarding school.

It has already been mentioned, that these schools usually furnish larger facilities than any of the great majority of high schools. It is also a matter of fact, that they meet certain demands which are not met in any of the high schools. There are opportunities for a more extended and special study of some branches of science, of literature and especially of music and art. Some of them are richly endowed, and not a few have a national fame; and large numbers are attracted from the remotest parts of the country, both because of their real excellence and because the very name of attending such a school is a motive. True, motives of the latter kind are not always the most laudable, and I confess to small sympathy with another incentive which induces a certain class of parents to withdraw their children from the public schools simply because they are public and common, and send them to a costly and stylish private establishment. Such a motive is not a lofty one, and it is certainly not Ameri

can.

There is another reason, not always noticed, why students go to the seminaries rather than to the public schools. It is sometimes the case that they can be accommodated at the former in a way that is not compatible with the interest of the latter; more frequently, perhaps, it is the case that a pupil who is not well calculated to get on at the high school-possibly whose attainments are not sufficient to admit him- and who has in a way outgrown the grammar school, can with much advantage spend a year or more at the academy.

There is also a class of valuable young men and women whose mental awakening comes late in life, who are impelled even then to seek an education, who would find the environment of a public school disagreeable, but who in the academy find themselves at home, and are able, happily, to accomplish that which they desire. Some of the ablest men and women in the nation have come from this class, who, in many instances, but for the academy would have failed to secure the training which has been to them the means of their success.

For these reasons, and some others that might be mentioned, there is a class of New England academies that will doubtless continue to exist and prosper. There is no occasion for any antagonism between them and the public schools, but rather a call for the heartiest sympathy and fraternal good feeling. They have their separate provinces, and these seldom overlap each other.

CITY SUPERVISION.

PRES. HOMER H. SEERLEY, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, CEDAR FALLS, IOWA.

SO

Modern educational organization and management has developed a new profession in the supervision of city schools. It has all the marks of a learned profession in that it calls for the possession of a large body of scientific knowledge that is obtained with great difficulty, and as a business it is limited to a few few that its membership is a privileged body, enjoying certain prerogatives that are attractive to men of ambition and talent. As a vocation, it is not a trade, since it cannot be learned by the multitude, and it is not an office, because not every well qualified person is eligible to undertake it. It is to be admitted that not always does city school supervision attain this distinction, nor does it occupy such a strong professional character. There is supervision and supervision, there are superintendents and superintendents, but to the professional type alone does this paper refer; and to the creating of such a public sentiment as will demand such a condition of affairs in this great profession, are these thoughts devoted.