8 INTRODUCTION. 



kind of common flower,) that you can find in the fields m the 

 mean time, here is a ' ftoiany for Beginners' which 1 will lend 

 you to look over, ami c.-my home for your parents to examine; 

 should they approve oi ii, I should like to have them furnish 

 you with the book, that you may commence the study immedi- 

 ately." 



But it may be said, "(h^re are many teachers who are not 

 capable of giving a lecture upm Botany." It is expected that 

 many will use this book, who have never heard a lecture upon 

 the subject; but every teacher who is in any degree fit to be 

 such, can learn as much of d\o science from the work as will 

 enable him to understand its leading principles ; and he can 

 explain them to his pupils : this will be lecturing upon botany. 

 With respect to the questions that accompany the Book, they 

 are added for the use of young and inexperienced Teachers : 

 others are not in general confined to any set of questions : 

 The great object in view is that the pupil shall understand the 

 subject; an ingenious teacher will, with every recitation, vary 

 his manner of questioning, in order to ascertain this. 



In reciting from this book, the fupil should bo taught to vary 

 the pronoun from the second to the first person. For instance, 

 in the beginning of Chapter I., when the teacher asks "what 

 is said of the study you are about to commence ?" the pupil 

 should answer, " We are now about to commence a study," 

 &c. This little exercise, trifling as it may seem, will of itself 

 be useful, by leading the pupil to consider the sense of what he 

 says, and occasionally to make other variations in. the phraseo- 

 logy of the book. 



For more particular directions for teaching Botany, the au- 

 thor would refer Instructors to her Familiar Lectures, pages 6th 

 and 7th of the 4th edition. Suffice it to say here, that when 

 flowers can be obtained, their examination should make a part 

 of each exercise. In winter, when the analysis of plants njii^ 

 oe suspended, the pupil may study with profit, the chapter 

 which treat of the parts of plants, as the root, stem, leaf, d < 

 germination of the seed, &c. and the explanation of Botanic* 

 lerms. 



