182 HOW TO STUDY PLANTS. [LESSON 30. 



by a sharp knife. Such a microscope is not necessary, except for 

 very small flowers; but it is a great convenience at all times, and 

 is indispensable in studying the more difficult orders of plants. 



524. We suppose the student now to have a work in which the 

 plants of the country or district are scientifically arranged and 

 described : if in the Southern Atlantic States, Dr. Chapman's Flora 

 of the Southern States ; if north of Carolina and Tennessee, Gray's 

 Manual of the Botany of the United States, fifth edition ; or, as cov- 

 ering the whole ground as to common plants, and including also all 

 the common cultivated plants, Gray's Field, Forest, and Garden 

 Botany, which is particularly arranged as the companion of the 

 present work ; that containing brief botanical descriptions of the 

 plants, and this the explanation of their general structure, and of 

 the technical terms employed in describing them. To express 

 clearly the distinctions which botanists observe, and which furnish 

 the best marks to know a plant by, requires a good many technical 

 terms, or words used with a precise meaning. These, as they are 

 met with, the student should look out in the Glossary at the end of 

 this volume. The terms in common use are not so numerous as 

 they would at first appear to be. With practice they will soon be- 

 come so familiar as to give very little trouble. And the application 

 of botanical descriptive language to the plants themselves, indicating 

 all their varieties of form and structure, is an excellent discipline 

 for the mind, equal, if not in some respects superior, to that of learn- 

 ing a classical language. 



525. The following illustrations and explanations of the way to use 

 the descriptive work are, first, for The Field, Forest, and Garden Bot- 

 any, that being the one which will be generally used by beginners and 

 classes. This and the Lessons, bound together in a single compact 

 volume, will serve the whole purpose of all but advanced students, 

 teachers, and working botanists. Thus equipped, we proceed to 



526. The Analysis of a Plant. A Buttercup will serve as well 

 as any. Some species or other may be found in blossom throughout 

 nearly the whole spring and summer ; and, except at the very 

 beginning of the season, the fruit, more or less developed, may be 

 gathered with the blossom. To a full knowledge of a plant the 

 fruit is essential, although the name may almost always be ascer- 

 tained without it. This common yellow flower being under exam- 

 ination, we are to refer the plant to its proper class and order or 



