THE PLANT WORLD 49 



scarcely have occurred to any oue who lived anterior to the age of 

 Linnaeus and Bernard de Jussieu,"* 



The method followed by Mill in his study of hotany was the ana- 

 lytic. He was chiefly concerned, at the beginning, at least, with the 

 identification of plants. Bentham himself had already used it. Under 

 the inspiration of his mother, an ardent devotee of the science, he be- 

 came interested in the analytical tables which formed a part of De 

 Candolle's edition of Lamarck's Flore Francaise. Trying by means of 

 them to name everj^ plant he saw as they traveled in France, he began 

 his botanical career. De Candolle took an analogous course. Without 

 books at first to name his plants, for two years he wrote out descrip- 

 tions of those he met with, and found when he came to use the work of 

 Linnaeus to obtain their names, that he had discovered certain natural 

 relations which were disturbed by the artificial system of the Swedish 

 master. Henceforth the "Systema Plantarum " became to him " a sim- 

 ple dictionary, "t Goethe's way was similar to that of Mill. In an 

 autobiographic sketch of the studies that led to the writing of his 

 " Metamorphosis of Plants," he tells how enthusiastic he became in the 

 study under the influence and direction of young Dietrich as they jour- 

 neyed across the mountains from Weimer to Karlsbad, collecting and 

 naming the plants they saw along the road. 



The importance of the study, as a means of mental discipline, aside 

 from teaching the habit of observation, chiefly lies in the value that 

 must be given to evidence. Facts, often of the most delicate nature, 

 must be weighed to come to a decision. The same process has to be 

 followed, not only by the Judge and the statesman, but by those in all 

 the walks of life. Failing to give the proper value to e\'idence may re- 

 sult in success or disaster, and as far as facts are involved, whatever 

 disciplines the mind for this will be of the greatest benefit in imparting 

 mental habits. It means a knowledge of plants in their structure and 

 work, their relations to their environment, if possible to the minutest 

 details, and the co-ordination and arrangement of this knowledge in a 

 system. As far as it goes, it is in kind the same process to him who can 

 dip but lightly into the science as to him who searches its profoundest 

 depths. 



Chicago, Iht,. 



*Mill's System of Logic, p. 511 (Harper's edition). 



tA. P. De Candolle's Memoires et Souvenirs. Paris, 1862, p. 37. 



