*o 



EECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



WAYSIDE WEEDS AND THEIE TEACHINGS. 



IN SIX HANDFULS. 



" There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower, 

 There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree, 

 There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower. 

 And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea." 



The Gladness of Nature. — Beyant. 



— x'i^sralptn.^ — 



TsE science of plants, Botany, has tHs great 

 advajitage over every otlier department of 

 natural history, tliat its objects are not only 

 most readily accessible, but tbat tbey bave 

 been familiar to most of us from cbildbood. 

 The first steps of the entomologist, tbe geo- 

 logist, or the mineralogist, are made, as it 

 were, into a new world, wherein all is 

 strange and unknown — to the novice we 

 might say chaotic — but who does not know 

 the first easy paths which guide us into 

 Flora's realms P Are they not to every child 

 bordered and carpeted with daisies, and but- 

 tercups, and sweet-scented violets ? Have we 

 Aot picked in them chickweed and groundsel 

 for our favourite birds, and looked at 

 the scarlet poppies somewhat doubtfully as 

 poisonous, putting them under the same 

 anathema as " hemlock," which, however, 

 was often not hemlock at aU P Then, again, 

 are not these paths overhung with the wild 

 rose and honeysuckle for our summer shade ? 

 And when, after long absence, it may be, in 

 the smoky town or in some foreign clime, 

 we return to retread the paths again, see 

 these old familiar faces, do we not know 

 their names as well as we do our own P 



" The cowslip, crocus, columbine, 

 The violet and the snowdrop fine. 

 The orchis 'neath the hawthorn-tree, 

 The blue-bell and anemone. 

 The wild rose, eglantine, and daisy." 



We know them all, and many another, with- 

 out any teaching. 



Truly this name-knowledge is qo des- 

 picable foundation for our future botanical 

 education — a far better one than we could 

 find for any other science ; sounder, too, for 



it has not only a place in the head but in 

 the heart ; dull and dead must that heart 

 be, that greets not warmly the old friends of 

 our first toddling days. 



On this foundation we purpose to build, 

 and thus to avoid what so often proves a 

 first and formidable difficulty when subjects 

 are dealt with of which the learners have no 

 previous knowledge. We mean to take, both 

 for text and illustration, the commonest way- 

 side weeds and flowers familiar to all, and wo 

 mean them, being their own interpreters, to 

 teU us a great deal. We will try whether 

 they cannot outline for us, if we may so 

 speak, the plan of the flowery world, and 

 whether we cannot gather from their simple 

 teachings some idea of the great design, in 

 accordance with which the vegetable king- 

 dom is constructed and arranged. It may 

 be that many will be content with this, but 

 should some desire to go farther, and to gain 

 more knowledge of the numberless forms 

 of vegetable beauty and structure to be 

 met with amid the native plants of our own 

 land, and still more strikingly, perhaps, amid 

 those of other latitudes, they will find the 

 foundation begun upon our common " Way- 

 side Weeds," a solid because a practical one. 



We call them common, and, in one sense, 

 they are so — the sense in which we have 

 chosen them for illustration ; but common are 

 they in no others, for as surely and as well 

 as the most gorgeous exotic, do each and all 

 show forth the goodness, the wisdom, and 

 the power of that great Creator, whose 



" Steps are beauty, and his presence light." 



A few words as to our arrangement. 



