ELEMENTARY BOTANY IN GENERAL EDUCATION. 367 



For the main purpose in hand, therefore, it may be contended 

 that any objects would do. 



This is no doubt true in one sense, but it should not be for- 

 gotten that (1) the mental exercise on the part of the child is 

 best exerted on natural objects, to say nothing of the admitted 

 advantages of familiarizing him with Nature ; and (2) the parts 

 of plants are so varied, so beautiful, and so common, that he need 

 never lack materials for his simple and pleasant work. More- 

 over, the parts of plants are clean, light, and easily handled 

 practical advantages which recommend themselves. 



I feel convinced that, if the teachers were not opposed to it, 

 the subject would ere now have been more widely taught ; and 

 I shall therefore say a few words in anticipation of difficulties. 

 It has been suggested that materials would be scarce in winter. 

 Not at all. Let the children be familiarized with the observa- 

 tion and comparison of the peculiarities of a sprig of holly as 

 contrasted with one of ivy ; or let them be shown how different 

 are the buds and leafless shoots of the beech from those of the 

 oak or the horse-chestnut. Show them how to observe the bud- 

 scales, how to infer the leaf -arrangement from the scars, how to 

 notice the color, roughness, markings, etc., of the periderm. Or 

 give them introductory notions as to the nature of a hyacinth 

 bulb as contrasted with the potato tuber, confining their atten- 

 tion to points which they can make out by observation. Every 

 nut or orange or apple that the child eats might be made inter- 

 esting if teachers would dare step over the traces of conven- 

 tion, and introduce such ostensibly dangerous articles into class- 

 work and why not ? The doctrine of rewards and punish- 

 ments is applied more crudely than this in most children's 

 schools ! 



Be this as it may, there is no lack of material, at any season, 

 for children to observe and compare, plant in hand, the peculiari- 

 ties of shape, color, insertion, markings, etc., of the leaves, stems, 

 roots, and other parts. The difficulties are supposed to increase 

 when the flower is reached ; this is not necessarily the case in the 

 hands of a sympathetic teacher, unless the choice of flowers is 

 very unfortunate and limited. 



There is one danger to be avoided here, however. Young 

 children should not be troubled with the difficulties of theoretical 

 morphology ; they should be made familiar with the more obvious 

 roots, stems, leaves, tendrils, thorns, flowers, bulbs, tubers, etc., 

 as such, and comparatively, and not forced to concern themselves 

 with such ideas as that the flower is a modified shoot, the bulb a 

 bud, the tendril a leaf or branch, etc., until they have learned 

 simply to observe and compare accurately. Later on, of course, 

 the step must be taken of rousing their minds to the necessity of 



