40 POPULAR FIELD BOTANY. 
proving pleasure than that of the examination of plants ; for 
every investigation will open new beauties to the observer, 
and many an insignificant weed (as we may deem it), if 
brought home and examined with a magnifier, astonishes us 
by its extraordinary formation. I advise young botanists 
to examine minutely all the plants they gather, even if they 
do not know their names, because this close mspection 
familiarizes them with their different parts, the knowledge of 
which they will find very useful as they advance in the 
study. The endless variety astonishes the thinking mind, 
and we are continually struck with the purpose and fore- 
sight displayed m what appear trifling peculiarities. Some- 
thing new is constantly found, and our admiration and 
gratitude, for so great a variety of beauties, is continually 
called forth. 
A tender green is now beginning to spread over the 
fields ; the grass shoots forth, and the trees and herbs seem 
as if awaking from a deep sleep. ‘Those trees which last 
month were only showing naked boughs now begin to put 
forth buds, and the various appearances of nature announce 
the return of spring. It is interesting to watch the gradual 
clothing of the banks and hedge-rows with plants, where 
every thing before seemed dead; and if each plant as it 
