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WHAT BOTANY IS OF MOST WORTH ? 33 



portance is that for exact observation. No others 

 can be of much value if it be lacking ; hence training 

 in it should be the first care of any course. For 

 training in observation, anatomy, dealing with actual 

 structure, is the best possible discipline. In order to 

 secure concentration upon it, and not to distract the 

 attention by too many novelties, the earlier laboratory 

 exercises of any course should be upon objects already 

 somewhat familiar, with clearly defined characters, and 

 large enough to need no tools, but only the naked 

 eye and hand. Answering to these demands, there is 

 nothing known to me better than large seeds, which 

 have the further advantages of being easy to obtain 

 and in condition for study at all seasons, as well as 

 a logical point of beginning for the study of the cycle 

 of plant-life. The correct sizes and shapes of these 

 seeds, the exact kinds and relative positions of all of 

 the markings on the coats and their relations to the 

 parts of the embryo inside, the number of the coats, 

 the full number of parts in the embryo, and the exact 

 way they are put together, all afford under the skilled 

 teacher fine materials for practice in observation, a 

 failure to succeed in which cannot be laid to inability 

 to use instruments or ignorance of how to begin work. 

 It is active seeing, not passive looking, which consti- 

 tutes observation. Later the seeds may be germinated, 

 and the exact place and mode of appearance of new 

 structures, the position of newer leaves relatively to the 



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