An Attractive Flower Book for Botany and 

 Nature-Study Classes 



C. C. Leeson 



Much adverse criticism has been made against the idea of re- 

 quiring herbarium collections as a part of the work in plant study. 

 This is perhaps justly so for some reasons and for others quite en- 

 tirely wrong. The old full sheet herbarium was usually relegated 

 to the attic, for want of space in the living room, where it lay un- 

 touched from year to year, — except by insects and mice which 

 usually made short work of it. The students were required to 

 secure root and all in order to be scientific in their work and so, 

 year after year, the classes were turned loose into the near-by 

 woods and fields to root up the fast disappearing specimens until 

 many of our wild flowers in the inhabited sections either have al- 

 ready or are fast nearing extinction. For these and other reasons 

 the herbarium has been abandoned and what might be a means 

 of acquaintance with and heightened interest in flowers has been 

 lost altogether. 



With a full realization of the inefficiency of the old system and 

 a growing belief that nothing is quite so good as the collecting 

 habit to get acquainted with nature, the writer has adopted a 

 scheme in his Botany classes which, through four years of exper- 

 ience has proved so successful as to be worthy of passing on. 



This is found in the making of a souvenir booklet of flowers and 

 their appropriate quotations. This, when neatly arranged and 

 given a suitable cover design, is worthy of a place in any souvenir 

 collection or fits easily in with other books on the library shelf. 

 The quotations serve to stimulate an interest in the real meaning 

 and beauty of the flowers and to show of what prominence they 

 are in literature as well as in science. This aesthetic phase of plant 

 study is one which, I believe, is well worthy of study and which, 

 by this scheme, is given excellent emphasis. The scholars have, 

 in my experience, shown an eager interest in the making of these 

 booklets, and I venture to say that they will always treasure and 

 show them with just pride. 



For from five to ten cents apiece the teacher can secure the blank 

 booklets from the local printing firm and sell them to the pupils 

 or each may make his own. In pressing they should pare down 

 thick stems or flowers to prevent a bungling set of specimens, 



250 



