274 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



You hand round to each boy several specimens, say of 

 the herb Robert; and taking one of the flowers, you 

 ask one of them to describe the parts of it. Some 

 pink leaves, is the reply. How many? Five. 

 Any other parts? Some little things inside. Any 

 thing outside? Some green leaves. How many? 

 Five. Very good. Now pull off the five green leaves 

 outside, and lay them side by side ; next pull off the five 

 pink leaves, and lay them side by side ; and now ex 

 amine the little things inside: what do you find? 

 A lot of little stalks or tilings. Pull them off, and 

 count them. They find ten. Then show them the 

 little dust-bags at the top, and finally the curiously con 

 structed central column and the carefully concealed 

 seeds. By this time, all are on the alert. Then we re 

 sume: The parts in that flower are, outer green envel 

 ope, inner coloured envelope, the little stalks with dust 

 bags, arid the central column with the seeds. Then you 

 give them all wall-flowers ; and they are to write down 

 what they find. By the end of the hour they have 

 learned one great lesson, the existence of the four 

 floral whorls, though they have not yet heard the 

 name. 



Here, let it be noted, the students are making 

 their own way. They are not told that a flower 

 consists of four whorls, but they find it out for 

 themselves, and know it henceforth on the evi 

 dence of their own senses. If they were to see or 



