THE EARLY STUDY OF PLANTS. 753 



curiosity, the pleasure, and even the excitement that come from a con- 

 nected course of observations upon simple leaves are all-sufficient as a 

 stimulus to continued effort, and the concurrent testimony of able 

 teachers who have practiced the method abundantly justifies my own 

 results. 



This objection, that I begin with leaves in the study of plants, has 

 been often made before. Of course, there may be various points of 

 approach to the subject ; but I had to adopt one, and I chose that 

 which is unquestionably most favorable for beginning the work of 

 self-instruction. None of the objections that I have seen have any 

 force against the proved advantage of the plan pursued. 



In further criticism of the method Mrs. Jacobi says, " Again, it is 

 unnatural to enter upon the beautiful world of plants by the study 

 of forms and outlines which is much better pursued when abstracted 

 from all other circumstances, as in models of pure mathematical fig- 

 ures." I am at a loss to understand this. Does Mrs. Jacobi regard 

 me as attempting to teach geometry by the forms and outlines of 

 leaves ? I certainly have made no other use of forms and outlines 

 than results from the inevitable relations of the mind to its environ- 

 ment. Forms and outlines are properties by which objects are known. 

 The properties of bodies revealed to us through sensation are used 

 by the child in the study of plants in exactly the same way that they 

 are earlier used in the study of household and all familiar objects. 

 The only difference is that, in descriptive botany, these observations 

 are made with more precision, have a logical unity, and a conscious 

 purpose. I am the more puzzled to understand in what the unnatural- 

 ness of the study of forms and outlines of leaves consists, because Mrs. 

 Jacobi tells us (p. 472) that, " before the child has a clearly intellectual 

 life on any other subjects, it attains a very definite power to distin- 

 guish the square, the oval, the spiral." If this be true, how can the 

 study of forms of any objects be considered unnatural ? If, as she 

 relates, a child may describe bits of cake as squares and cubes, " make 

 pentagons and octagons with knife and fork," characterize onions as 

 " oblates," without being unnatural, why does she become so when 

 she describes leaves as round, oval, oblong, etc., as the case may be ? 



But perhaps Mrs. Jacobi means that " it is unnatural to enter upon 

 the beautiful world of plants by the study of forms and outlines," be- 

 cause the most beautiful and attractive parts should receive attention 

 first. This might accord with the dictates of aesthetic feeling, but there 

 is no reason why it should be regarded as especially the natural way. 

 The truth is, this point has been settled by the history of botanical 

 method. The flower, the most conspicuous and beautiful part, was for 

 a long time taken alone as the basis of a classification which depended 

 upon the number and mode of arrangement of its essential organs, to 

 the neglect of the remaining plant-characters ; but that is now recog- 



TOL. XXVII. 48 



