PART III 



PLANT LIFE 



HOW TO BEGIN THE STUDY OF PLANTS 

 AND FLOWERS 



HE only right way to begin plant study with 

 young children is through awakening their 

 interest in and love for flowers. Most children 

 love flowers naturally; they enjoy bringing 

 flowers to school, and here, by teaching the 

 recognition of flowers by name, may be begun 

 this delightful study. "This should be done 

 naturally and informally. The teacher may 

 say: "Thank you, John, for this bouquet. 

 Why, here is a pansy, a bachelor's button, a 

 larkspur and a poppy." Or, "Julia has 

 brought me a beautiful flower. What is its name, I wonder?" Then 

 may follow a little discussion, which the teacher leads to the proper con- 

 clusion. If this course is consistently followed, the children will learn 

 the names of the common flowers of wood, field and garden, and never 

 realize that they are learning anything. 



The next step is to inspire the child with a desire to care for and pre- 

 serve his bouquet. The posies brought in the perspiring little hand may 

 be wilted and look dejected ; ask their owner to place the stems in water, 

 and call attention to the way they lift their drooping heads. Parents and 

 teachers should very early inculcate in children this respect for the rights 

 of flowers which they gather; no matter how tired the child or how dis- 

 inclined to further effort, when he returns from the woods or fields or 

 garden with plucked flowers, he should be made to place their stems in 

 water immediately. This is a lesson in duty as well as in plant study. 



