LIBRAF 



The Ottawa Naturalist. 



ol. IX. OTTAWA, MARCH, 1896. No. 12. 



NOTES ON THE STUDY OF BOTANY. 

 By T. J. W. Burgess, M. D., F. R. S. C. ftc. < Montreal, Que.) 

 Read before the Ottawa Field-Naturalists" Club, Ottawa, 8th February, lhfl;. 

 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 



The highest and most important object ot all human science 

 should be mental improvement, and the study of natural history, in 

 particular field-work, when properly pursued, is assuredly adapted to 

 strengthen, discipline, and develop the mental powers. It robs the 

 mind of contracted ideas, induces us to take close as well as compre- 

 hensive views of objects, and teaches us to argue from facts, not from 

 fancies. Though the study of nature in any of her forms is calculated to 

 bring about these results, none of the natural sciences is as good for be- 

 ginners as botany, the materials being everywhere abundant and inex- 

 pensive. To the average student, plants, possessing life, are more in- 

 teresting than minerals, while animals, though affording the most 

 striking marks of designing wisdom, cannot be dissected and examined 

 without painful emotions. 



One of the most apparent of the many advantages to be gained by 

 the study of botany is that it systematizes the mind, by imprinting on 

 it and establishing habits of order and exactness. It thus gives all the 

 benefits of mathematics or logic without the drudgery which debars so 

 many from pursuing the study of these >< icnc.es.. System is essential 

 not only in science, but in conducting any kind of business and in the 

 most trivial affairs of everyday life ; thus, the very logical and systematic 

 airangement prevailing in botanical science cannot but induce in the 

 mind a habit and love of order, which, when once established, will 

 operate in even the minutest concerns. The methodical habits of 



