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SCHOOL BOTANY 



Love of Nature. — Those who love nature can never be 

 dull. They may have other temptations; but at least they will 

 run no risk of being beguilded by ennui, idleness or want of 

 occupation, "to buy the merry madneso of an hour with the 

 long penitence of after time." The love of nature, again, 

 helps us greatly to keep ourselves free from the mean and petty 

 cares which interfere so much with calm and peace of mind. 

 It turns "every ordinary walk into a morning or evening sacri- 

 fice," and brightens life until it becomes almost like a fairy 

 tale. — John Lubbock. 



Unstable Nomenclature. — I have myself long pur- 

 sued priority in the hope that names would be both stable and 

 usable. I have even advocated the forcing of prior forgotten 

 names back into general nomenclature. I did so as long as 

 mere temporary convenience seemed at stake. I did so while 

 names doubled in length, trebled in absurdity and quadrupled 

 in number. I did so until family names began to fall and to be 

 set up again in exchanged places. I did so until I became un- 

 able to read the literature in several groups of which I had 

 once been a student, or to converse with modern students of 

 these groups. I did so until it became well nigh impossible for 

 me to give my classes intelligible references to the literature 

 tliey most needed to consult in their work. And then I began 

 to entertain doubts as to the approval of posterity, the best kind 

 of foundations, etc. I began to lo.5e faith in priority as a cure- 

 all for nomenclatural ills. For the real burden of nomencla- 

 ture will be but little altered by the strictest application of this 

 law. With all the arduous labor now^ required of any youth 



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