174 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



AQASSIZ ASSOCIATION 



Established 1875 Incorporated, Massachusetts, 1892 Incorporated, Connecticut, 1910 



The Value to Young People of Study 

 and Observation of Nature. 



P.Y MRS. MARIA HE;RRICK BRAY, WEST 

 GLOUCESTER. MASSACtlUSETTS, A NA- 

 TURE STUDENT EIGHTY-SEVEN YEARS 

 YOUNG. 



Life is eternal, and on each of its 

 pages we register what we are. As I 

 look back to the beginning of my earth- 

 ly life eighty-seven years ago, I am 

 firmly convinced that one of the duties 

 that I owe to the young people of this 

 generation is to urge them to come at 

 an early age into close and familiar 

 companionship with nature. 



Nature never fails to give a cordial 

 welcome to every son and daughter 

 who is inspired with love for birds, 

 flowers, ferns, trees and the countless 

 variety of interesting attractions that 

 nature offers everywhere freely and 

 profusely. 



Splendid opportunities open to _ us 

 every day. Years ago Browning 

 wrote : 



" we're made so that we love 



First when we see them painted, 



things we have passed 



Perhaps a hundred times nor cared 

 to see 



A deep, reverent love for nature, a 

 real hunger for knowledge concerning 

 simple everyday objects in botany, or- 

 nithology, marine plants, things not 

 rare nor seclusive, but as Hamilton 

 Gibson says, "To be found in almost 

 any of our woods or fields, along the 

 seabeaches, and which any wide-awake 

 saunterer may discover with 'half 

 an eye' if that meml^er be properly 

 equipped." 



Anticipation is an equipment, the 

 surest "open sesame" to discovery, and 

 anticipation may be quickened either 

 bv pictorial hint or previous experience. 

 The brain must be on the alert. A boy 



who has woodchucks in his mind as 

 he crosses the farm is sure to see his 

 woodchuck. 



Having lived for more than eight 

 decades I feel it a privilege and a pleas- 

 ure to counsel young people, if they 

 desire to enter into one of the broadest 

 zones of real enjoyment and happiness, 

 where the daily frets and worries of 

 life cannot enter, to begin the observa- 

 tion and study of nature early in life. 



I give this counsel from personal ex- 

 perience. I have no recollection of the 

 time when the woods, the fields and 

 the shore of the multitudinous sea. 

 did not have strong attractions for me, 

 nor when I failed to find "Mother Na- 

 ture" a teller of true and entrancing 

 stories. If you begin early in life to 

 think, study and observe, the wise 

 mother will reveal wonderful stories of 

 planting, growth of leaf, bud, blossom 

 and fruit. 



Turn another leaf in "nature's vast 

 storybook," and you become interested 

 in the study of the flowerless plants, 

 lichens, mosses and ferns. After these 

 interesting plants attract your atten- 

 tion, you cannot walk aimlessly through 

 the woods and fields, for as Mr. Under- 

 wood declares. "In the entire vegeta- 

 ble world, there are probably no forms 

 of growth that attract more general 

 notice than the ferns." 



I recall hours filled with perfect joy 

 in "fern hunts." In a short time the 

 ferns become companionable through 

 observation and study of their names, 

 habits and habitats. 



In early life I began to collect sea 

 plants, wild flowers and ferns. The 

 work was full of fascination, and devel- 

 oped within me an insatiable desire for 

 the study and observation of nature. 

 And in these later years memories of 

 the long ago are beautiful ; like rare 

 paintings thev glow with the colors of 



