348 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Hence the suitableness of flowers for making large, forcible, indeli- 

 ble impressions on the imagination and the memory, and for storing 

 the mind at the outset with the most vivid and beautiful conceptions 

 of Nature. 



The leaf offers, indeed, a variety of beautiful forms and outlines, 

 which are not, however, either so numerous or so conspicuous as those 

 displayed by the various organs of the flower. Leaves contrast less 

 conspicuously with one another ; their sensible differences are much 

 less striking, and the eye of the child is not sufficiently trained to ade- 

 quately appreciate the subtile differences of color which really exist. 

 To him leaves can scarcely fail to present the vast monotony of green 

 which the primitive vegetation of the earth is said to have exhibited 

 before variegated corollas appeared. It is certainly desirable to repeat 

 for the individual mind the experience of the race ; but is it neces- 

 sary for that to go back to the ages which antedated even the prehis- 

 toric man ? 



In a word, the differences of flowers I'csembles the " legend writ in 

 large letters " which Plato advised should be first studied ; the differ- 

 ences of leaves make the same legend repeated in the " small letters," 

 and therefore more difficult to decipher.* 



4. Wiss Youmans's reason derived from botanical systems of clas- 

 sification I scarcely understand. It is very true that classification 

 by the corolla is abandoned, and indeed never could have been carried 

 very far. But the natural system, which sums up the total characters 

 of the plant, certainly derives a much larger number of its data from 

 the flower than from any other part of the plant. The great function 

 of the plant is reproduction, and around the organs of reproduction 

 contained in the flower center all its peculiarities. The mutual rela- 

 tions of stamens and pistils have been found inadequate for classifica- 

 tion ; but the extension of the class lines has still been chiefly in the 

 direction of other parts of the flower, c?i">ecially the fruit, ovule, and 

 embryo. 



Toward the flower converge all the forces of the plant ; it is the 

 culmination, the perfection of the entire vegetable organism. It 

 should therefore be contemjdated first, because, as it seems to me, it is 

 eminently desirable that the child should, whenever possible, see the 

 principal thing first ; since whatever comes first is always liable to re- 

 main for him the most important. The habit of ranking things in the 

 order of their real relative importance is certainly a most valuable 

 habit to cultivate, both morally and intellectually. As has already 

 been pointed out, the mind in its growth closely resembles that of a 

 tree ; for it, primary facts constantly tend to become central facts, 

 and due organic yjroportions are only maintained between ideas 

 when the principal, by being placed first, is enabled to become 

 really central, a vitalized center of fitl}' organized knowledge. For 

 * " Republic," book ii, 3G8 (Jowctt's translation). 



