40 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



sometimes on the history of plants, sometimes on their quali- 

 ties, sometimes on their products, and sometimes on their 

 poetical associations." He insists that we should always make 

 our text-books intelligent (and therefore attractive) to our 

 children; keeping clear in mind, "whether we wish our nom- 

 enclature to tell us something about the plant itself, or only to 

 tell us the place it held in relation to other plants. Before we 

 can wisely decide this point we must resolve whether- our 

 botany is intended to be useful mainly to the vulgar, or satis- 

 factory to the scientific elite. My own method, so far as hither- 

 to developed, consists essentially in fastening the thoughts 

 of the pupil on the special characters of the plant in the place 

 where he is likely to see it; and therefore in expressing the 

 power of its race and order in the wider world ; rather by ref- 

 erence to mythological association than to botanical structure. 

 So far as I have influence with the young myself, I would pray 

 them to be assured that it is better to know the habits of one 

 plant than to know the names of a thousand ; and wiser to be 

 happily familiar with those that grow in the nearest field, than 

 ardously cognizant of all that plume the Isles of the Pacific, or 

 illumine the Mountains of the Moon." 



Passages as delicious in their humor as they are incisive in 

 their invective (but in either case luminous and stimulating), 

 we might multiply without stint. Note this charming meta- 

 phor of Daphne, "the ruling power of the leafy peace," in the 

 chapter on the Leaf. "She is, in her first life, the daughter of 

 the mountain river, the mist of it filling the valley. The sun 

 pursuing and affacing the mist from dell to dell, is literally 

 Apollo pursuing Daphne. Thus hunted, she cries unto her 

 mother, the Earth, which opens and receives her, causing the 

 laurel to spring up in her stead. That is to say, wherever the 

 rocks protect the mist from the sunbeam, and sufifer it to water 

 the earth, there the laurel and other richest vegetation fill the 

 hollows, giving a better glory to the sun itself. For sunshine 



