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I call 'em Toviglis because Lliey .stand the colil so well : it's a sort 

 of familj^ name I give them ; and that's JMary Ann, and I can see 

 Xicodemus and Artlmr out there near the gate." " Shade of 

 LinnfEUS," remarks the writer, " Vanessa atalanta vulgarised into 

 Mary Ann Tough." Viilgarised perhaps, Imt just think of Avhat 

 this name indicated, it was not only a Tough, but a Mary Ann 

 Tough ; nay, further, was the indivirlual ^fary Ann Tough. This is 

 the kind of study that educates and bi'ings real knowledge, Avhen 

 you know your plant, your butterfly, or your fossil, Avhen you greet 

 it as an old friend, Avhose ways and habits you are conversant 

 with, whose needs and reciuirenients you knoAV, and can help to 

 provide for if necessary. 



But the difficulty of names still remains, and must be met. 

 It is a serious difficulty, but attack it gradually and it will lie 

 found not so serious after all. Be content at first with the 

 .surnames, so to speak, the class-names. Call all your difterent 

 buttercups Ranunculus, your forget-me-nots Myosotis, and so on, 

 and you will find that the difficulty gradually fades away. The 

 Christian names will follow, and you begin to recognise your early 

 spring buttercup as Ranunculus ftcaria, and the curly variegated 

 forget-me-not as Myosotis versicolor. Be careful, however,* to 

 remember that it is but a means to an end, that this knowledge 

 of words is but to enable you to learn botany, and that what is 

 required is an intelligent knowledge of scientific method, rather 

 than an imperfect and superficial acquaintance with a large 

 number of facts. Botany offers much scope in its jargon of 

 technical terms for mere memory work, or, as Sully calls it, 

 "pretence of knowledge getting," and we must guard against 

 accepting these as evidence of our knowledge. 



One great advantage Avliich results from the scientific study 

 of botany must here be referred to. Other sciences give it in 

 minor degree, but botany — thanks to the labours of men like 

 Linnaeus and De CandoUe — exhibits in a wonderfully perfect 

 manner this important principle. I mean the iwinciple of 

 ^classification. When a mass of facts is presented to our notice 

 and we wish to study them, it becomes necessary for lucidity to 

 arrange these facts in more or less natural classes, these classes in 

 sub-classes, and so on. The principle adopted is a very simple 

 one, but from its very simplicity very difficult to adopt completely. 

 It can be best illustrated thus. Most of you will no d(3ubt have 

 joined in a game about Christmas time where the object is for 

 one individual to guess at the name of a person selected by the 

 others in his absence, tlie only aid given being the answering Yes 

 or No to any questions he may ask. It, at first sight, would 



