206 FLOWERS AND FOLKS. 
only beginning to be understood; but its 
bearing upon the study of what we call nat- 
ural history would seem to be evident. My 
own experience as a dabbler in botany and 
ornithology has convinced me that the pur- 
suit of such researches is not at all out of 
the spirit of the familiar line, — 
“'The proper study of mankind is man,” — 
whatever the author of the line may have 
himself intended by his apothegm. To be- | 
come acquainted with the peculiarities of 
plants or birds is to increase one’s know- 
ledge of beings of his own sort. 
There is room, I think, for a treatise on 
analogical botany, —a study of the human 
nature of plants. Thoroughly and sympa- 
thetically done, the work would be both 
surprising and edifying. It would give us 
a better opinion of plants, and possibly a 
poorer opinion of ourselves. Some whole- 
some first lessons of this kind we have all 
taken, as a matter of course. ‘‘ We all do 
fade as a leaf.” “ All flesh is grass, and all 
the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the 
field.”” There are no household words more 
familiar than such texts. But the work of 
