THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION. 



i47 



What conditions does the plant require 

 for making' this food upon which its 

 flowers feed? How does its herbage 

 compare as regards food-value for man- 

 kind with the edible parts of other 

 plants ? How can its value as a vegeta- 

 ble be increased? 



T have wondered how far selection has 

 availed in improving the flavor and nu- 

 tritive qualities of cultivated sorts of 

 dandelions ; why the leaves of dandelions 

 growing: side bv side are often striking- 

 ly unlike; and to what extent the differ- 

 ences we now see in dandelions are re- 

 sults of what they or their ancestors at 

 crucial moments chose to do in response 

 to favoring opportunity. I have come 

 to wonder how much the inner life of a 

 dandelion is like mine, and what is the 

 most important difference between us. 



After many years I am still asking 

 and wondering about dandelions and 

 other commonest things that interested 

 me deeply as a boy, and I can see no 

 end to the joy of learning more and 

 more about them. Living creatures 



have always interested me most ; and 

 the most satisfying of all the delights 

 of studying them have come from the 

 feeling- that we are akin. I try to un- 

 derstand their needs, comparing them 

 with my own ; and try to appreciate 

 their vital problems, rejoicing in the ef- 

 ficient ways they have found of meeting 

 the exigencies of their lives. 



I have enjoyed especially making 

 friends with the plants about me, learn- 

 ing to recognize them when we meet, to 

 know the names by which they are 

 called, and to discover how we may be 

 of service to one another. Some of the 

 humblest among them, such as lichens, 

 have by the example of their lives often 

 led me to reflect on the advantages of 

 co-operation, of profiting by opportuni- 

 ties neglected by others rather than 

 working injury through competition, of 

 patient waiting under adverse condi- 

 tions, of substituting beauty for ugliness, 

 and of contributing to higher achieve- 

 ment by others. 



Surely we are all one — we sharers of 

 the gift of life — alike inheritors and 

 contributors, owing to those around us 

 and those to come the best we can give 

 for the good of all ! 



THE ATTRACTIONS OF NATURAL 

 SCIENCE. 



BY WILIJAM WHITMAN BAILEY, LL. D., 

 BROWN UNIVERSITY. 



I have ever maintained that, whatever 

 else might be a man's regular vocation, 

 he would find it to his advantage to 

 study nature. Of course I am aware 

 that there are many whose occupations 

 are such that they can give very little 

 time to any extra pursuit. But even to 

 these, though it may be all too rarely, 

 come a few spare hours. There are 

 always the Sundays and holidays and the 

 times, all too limited though they be, be- 

 fore or after the day's labor. 



Those to whom the love of nature 

 is inherent will find the time to 

 recognize her and by reading, study 

 and, above all, by observation to add to 

 the sum of their knowledge. By this 

 means, not only will they increase their 

 own personal enjoyment, but will be 

 able to instruct and entertain then- 

 friends. Many a man who has pursued 

 botany, entomology or geology as a side 

 issue has become famous in his day and 

 generation. Some of these devotees, in- 

 deed, have been persons of humble call- 

 ing. 



Take the case of Robert Dick, the 

 baker naturalist, a Scotch peasant who 

 became the correspondent of such men 

 as Sir Roderick Murchisson, and to 

 whose quick eye science was indebted 

 for the discovery in Great Britain of 

 many a rare plant or fossil. He himself 

 savs somewhere, and it seems to me the 

 key to his character, that when walking 

 on the sea-beach, he filled his pockets 

 with the glistening pebbles 

 "Simply because they were so bonny." 

 Herein speaks true nature love. It 

 is, of course, conceivable that one may 

 learn much by a continued pursuit of a 

 subject — that he may run it down or 

 capture it by desperate effort. But Na- 

 ture is proverbially coy ; to be won. she 

 must be wooed ; and he is happy, indeed, 

 who has, as it were, inherited her af- 

 fection. 



I think perhaps I can enforce my 

 point by a note of personal experience. 

 My father was a noted naturalist, his 

 side pursuits being botany and micro- 

 scopy, while his regular professorship at 



