XoTKS ON TIM', S'lipv nv I'oTANV. '247 



from time to time meet with unfamiliar terms, for the meaning of which 

 he will require to refer to the former. 



.A text-book secured, comes what is generally looked upon'as a 

 rather dry part of the study, viz , the reading of it. Many words are 

 met with which are strange and difficult to remember, but let me tell 

 you that the labor of learning technical terms is usually much over- 

 estimated. With practice they soon become familiar, while the dis- 

 cipline taught the mind in learning them is worth all it costs. There 

 is no royal road to solving the problems of nature any more than there 

 is to deciphering the mysteries of mathematics or metaphysics, but at 

 each step the way becomes easier till at last what was a wearisome task 

 becomes a pleasant and absorbing recreation. The so-called drudgery 

 is greatly lessened if the reading be pursued in a proper manner, and 

 especially if the reader has before him the proper material to illustrate 

 the more important points in each topic as it is taken up. He who 

 has some older botanical head to advise him what material to provide 

 beforehand for each chapter, is greatly blessed, 5 but, whether he has 

 specimens to examine or only the plates in his text-book to guide him. 

 I would strenuously advise him to make no effort to commit all the 

 terms he meets to memory. Let him try to read slowly and under- 

 standingly, but let him bear in mind that the object of this primary 

 reading, is only to get a general notion of plants and their parts, and to 

 learn the meaning of a few of the most material technial terms, so as to 

 be able to start collecting and naming plants for himself. Thus, in the 

 first reading, he will gain an idea of the life-history of a plant, and dis- 

 cover that as a rule a miniature plantlet, the embryo, exists ready formed 

 in the seed. Know this seed, say that of the maple, be placed in the ground 

 and allowed to germinate, the miniature plantlet will soon be seen to 

 develop in two opposite directions ; downward into a root or 

 descending axis, and upward into a stem or ascending axis. The stem 

 as it reaches the surface of the ground will be seen to bear a pair of 

 narrow green leaves, the seed-leaves or cotyledons. Soon between these 

 seed-leaves will appear a little bud, which shoots upward into a second 

 joint bearing another pair of leaves, which, however, differ in sbVpe 



I IOBADV1 .; 



