CORRESPONDENCE AND INFORMATION. 



253 



What a fallacy this is; how many 

 hours of toil ami heart-ache are occa- 

 sioned by this hackneyed old mon- 

 strosity. 



Take the classes afield, lead them 

 along the winding brook, take them 

 out under the azure heavens and teach 

 them the wonderful stories about the 

 stars. Teach them to love the birds, 

 the dowers, the trees, the rocks, and 

 without any effort they unconsciously 

 develop a greater love for man him- 

 self. School days should he made 

 pleasant, not irksome. What a won- 

 derful country this would be if a book 

 such as Prof. Clifton F. Hodge's "Na- 

 ture Study and Life" were adopted as 

 a standard text book for all the 

 schools, aided by a journal such as 

 your Guide to Nature. 



The work done now by the forestry 

 associations in saving forests, that of 

 the Audubon societies in preserving 

 birds, and that of the Humane socie- 

 ties to protect the weak and the help- 

 less, would all be unnecessary; and the 

 millions of dollars spent in saving and 

 preserving could be turned into other 

 channels, particularly educational. 



May your valuable journal be a great 

 factor in disseminating knowledge of 

 things about us, and may it grow enor- 

 mously, and with the wish that it 

 become a regular visitor at each and 

 every school in this vast country, I 

 beg to remain. 



Yours very sincerely, 



G. A. Hinnen. 



HOW TO TEACH ONE'S SELF 

 BOTANY 



To the Editor: 



What professor Bessey says, in the 

 September number, about the cultiva- 

 tion of ones power to observe is timely 

 and correct. What he says in regard 

 to learning the names of things is 

 equally true and valuable. The desire 

 to know the name of any object that 

 interests or even momentarily attracts 

 the attention, is a natural quality of 

 the human mind, and that name may, 

 in a botanical way, lead to other and 

 perhaps to better things. It may re- 



call, even to the amateur, self-instruc- 

 ted botanist, the natural order to which 

 the specimen belongs; it may tell him 

 somewhat of the structure of the 

 flower; somewhat- of the peculiarities 

 of the seeds; the plant's special habi- 

 tat ; the character of the soil that it 

 most affects; and it may finally lead 

 his thoughts to the ends of the earth 

 or further. In an active mind, one 

 thought or suggestion generally leads 

 to another cognate notion, this to 

 something else perhaps only remotely 

 connected, until at last the observer, 

 with only the name of his plant, may, 

 by "the association of ideas" find him- 

 self in imagination exploring the plains 

 of Tartary, or the hollows of Death 

 Valley. By all means get the name, 

 and do it first, and do it yourself. The 

 isolated young student, to whom Pro- 

 fessor Bessey refers as needing help 

 from a professional botanist, really 

 needs no such aid. He may help him- 

 self, and he will, if he be wise, and he 

 wdll be still wiser if he will always rely 

 on only his own efforts. Then when 

 he goes astray botanically, he will re- 

 trace his footsteps, observe where he 

 left the trail, mend his ways and do 

 better the next time. 



Botany is so interesting, it is so 

 helpful, so restful to the jaded man, 

 who may have an hour's leisure to pass 

 in country places or in the suburbs, 

 that, if I could, I would make the study 

 a requisite in every class in every pub- 

 lic school in the land, from the Kinder- 

 garten to the highest grade in the 

 High School and the Academy. The 

 objects for examination and for sug- 

 gestive thought are so abundant, so 

 common in every field, in every fence 

 corner, on every garbage dump, that to 

 suffer a lack of specimens is impos- 

 sible, lint, unless the mentality of 

 the pupil is greater than his physical- 

 ness, such efforts would be in vain ; 

 and no human being, unless his men- 

 tality is naturally somewhat devel- 

 oped, will even dream of teaching him- 

 self botany, or anything else. He will 

 not willingly remove his mind from 

 the continuous struggle for existence. 



With only a passing reference to 

 floral beauty ; to the possible strange- 



