XU FLORA ORCADENSIS. 
by a lecturer from an Agricultural College. He 
began by assuming that every farmer knew the 
common grasses. He talked learnedly on the subject 
without more than five per cent. being able to follow 
him. So long as he talked of rye-grass, cock’s-foot- 
grass, and clover, which they all knew, they were 
interested and followed the lecturer with eager 
attention ; but when he proceeded to treat of the 
less common grasses, such as meadow-fescue, sheep’s- 
fescue, &c., which very few of them knew, they were 
hopelessly bewildered. After the lecture was over, 
I suggested that a few specimens and diagrams would 
have enabled the farmer to become familar with 
these grasses. “It never occurred to me,’ he said, 
“that these practical farmers did not know the 
common grasses. I have not only diagrams at home 
but specimens of all the plants I have been treating 
of. It seemed superfluous for me to bring specimens 
of the plants over which they tread every day.” 
Whoever desires to possess a knowledge of botany 
should first learn to identify the common plants in 
his own district; but even this much can hardly be 
done without having first mastered a working know- 
ledge of the rudiments of the science, including roots, 
stems, leaves, flowers, stamens, pistils, seed-vessels, 
&e. Given this elementary knowledge of botany, he 
is then in a position to understand the methods of 
botanical classification, and, with the assistance of a 
good book on systematic botany, to put each plant 
which comes under his observation into its proper 
class. The study of botany on these lines may not 
only be of great practical value to the agriculturist, 
