4 BOTANY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



Let the learners, or the class under their teacher, therefore, in the first place go 

 carefully once through the First Part of the book, or at least through the first two 

 chapters, verifying the examples and illustrations given, as far as possible, with their 

 own eyes, and searching for other examples in the plants and flowers around them. 

 Then they may begin to study plants by the Flora, or Second Part of the book, ac- 

 cording to the directions given in the last section of Chapter IV. "Whenever they 

 meet with a word which they do not remember or clearly understand, they will look 

 it out in the Index, and refer back to the place in the first part of the book where 

 it is used and fully explained. Remember that every one has to creep before he 

 can walk, and to walk before he can run. Only begin at the beginning ; take pains 

 to understand things as you go on, and cultivate the habits of accuracy and nice dis- 

 crimination which this study is eminently adapted to inspire. Then each step will 

 render the next one easy ; you w^ill soon make more rapid progress ; will be able to 

 ascertain with facility the names and the structure of almost all common plants ; and 

 will gradually recognize the various and interesting relationships which bind the 

 members of the vegetable creation together in natural famihes, — showing them to 

 be parts of one system ; varied expressions, as it were, of the thoughts of their Di- 

 vine Author ; planned in reference to one another ; and evidently intended to enlarge 

 and enlighten our minds, as well as to gratify our senses, and nourish, clothe, warm, 

 and shelter our bodies. So the study of Botany — the most fascinating branch of 

 Natural History, especially for the young — becomes more and more interesting the 

 more we learn of it, and affords a constant and unalloyed intellectual gratification. 



When young students have thoroughly mastered this little book, they will be well 

 prepared to continue the study in the Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiol- 

 ogy, and in the Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, by the same 

 author. 



The illustrations are referred to throughout by numbers, with " Fig." prefixed. 

 The numbers occasionally introduced, within parenthesis-marks, and without any 

 prefix, (as on p. 25, line 1, and p. 36, line 9,) are references to former paragraphs, 

 where the subject, or the word used, has already been explained. 



* * 



The illustrations on the first page represent: — Fig. 1, Our commonest wild species of true Lily, 

 viz. the Canada Lily. Fig. 2. The Chalcedonian Lily, a native of Palestine, with scarlet flowers, sup- 

 posed to be "The Lily of the Field" to which our Saviour referred in the Sermon on the Mount. 

 Fig. 3. Lilies of the Valley, not true Lilies, but belonging to the Lily Family. 



