HERAT 



2777 



HERBART 



and statant, he stands with all four feet firmly 

 on the ground. This little discussion will make 

 clear the reference in the first paragraph to a 

 "lion passant on a field or." This means sim- 

 ply a lion in walking posture on a gold field. 



National Coats of Arms. If an individual 

 feels the need of a coat of arms to mark his 

 descent and his dignity, so much the more does 

 a great country, and most of the nations of the 

 world make use of such devices. In monarch- 

 ies, the national coat of arms is almost always 

 that of the royal family, and those of some 

 countries show in their charges every change in 

 the line of descent. This has been.true in Eng- 

 land, where the arms of France, of the House 

 of Orange and of the House of Hanover for- 

 merly appeared, but to-day the British coat of 

 arms has been simplified so that it bears the 

 leopards of England, the rampant lion of Scot- 

 land and the harp of Ireland. Below the shield 

 appear the English rose, Irish shamrock and 

 Scotch thistle, about it is the ribbon of the 

 Garter and above are the crown and a crowned 

 lion. See GARTER, ORDER OF THE. 



In the United States there were no devices 

 which had been handed down through the cen- 

 turies, and it was consequently necessary to de- 

 cide upon some appropriate symbol. On June 

 20, 1782, there was adopted the coat of arms, 

 or, as it is more commonly called, the great 

 seal, which is in use to-day. It shows the Ameri- 

 can eagle, bearing on its breast a shield with 

 thirteen stripes and thirteen stars, holding in 

 its beak a scroll with the words E pluribus 

 unum and in its claws an olive branch and a 

 sheaf of arrows. Canada has a Dominion coat 

 of arms which shows the seals of the four orig- 

 inal provinces Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia 

 and New Brunswick but this is not used as is 

 the seal of the United States. Instead, there is 

 a great seal, bearing as its central figure the 

 ruling sovereign of Great Britain. Each prov- 

 ince, and each state in the United States, has its 

 own seal, and these are all shown in the articles 

 on the provinces and states; also the coats of 

 arms of the various important countries appear 

 in their proper places. A.MC c. 



Consult Whittemore's Origin and Antiquity of 

 Heraldry; Davies's Armorial Families. 



HERAT, heraht', capital of the province of 

 the same name in Afghanistan, a city of political 

 and strategic importance, and long regarded as 

 the "key to India." The reason for this is that 

 the city is on the only fairly good wagon road 

 through the country (see AFGHANISTAN); it is 

 fifty miles south of the Russian frontier and 



370 miles west of Kabul. The town itself is 

 unsightly, with crooked, narrow and dirty 

 streets and few notable buildings. The chief 

 manufactures are sword blades, carpets, shoes, 

 sheepskin caps, and rosewater made from flow- 

 ers grown in magnificent gardens in the vicinity. 

 Herat was founded by Alexander the Great, 

 and its history has been one long series of con- 

 quests. It came under the rule of Arabs in the 

 seventh century, was captured by Timur in 

 1381 and by the Persians in 1510. At times the 

 inhabitants regained their independence, but 

 finally fell under the sway of the Afghans, who 

 occupied the city in 1749 and again in 1863. 

 Population in 1910, estimated at 10,000. 



HERBARIUM, herba'rium, a classified, sys- 

 tematically-arranged collection of dried plants. 

 As the study of living plants in their natural 

 surroundings is possible only in a limited way, 

 herbariums are invaluable in school work. The 

 best herbariums have specimens of plants from 

 which the original descriptions of the various 

 species were made. Those specimens are called 

 types. By studying them in comparison with 

 existing plants, relationships can be established 

 and histories of plant families read. Next in 

 importance to type specimens are specimens of 

 plants obtained from comparatively inaccessi- 

 ble regions, sent in by collectors who daily risk 

 their lives in the cause of science. 



Herbarium plants are usually mounted on 

 sheets of white paper, and the best specimens 

 show root, leaf, flower and fruit. These sheets 

 are marked with the name of the species, nat- 

 ural color, etc., name ofjpollector and date and 

 place of gathering. 



The oldest and one of the greatest herbari- 

 ums in the United States is the Gray Herba- 

 rium, the labor of the great botanist, Asa Gray, 

 and given by him to Harvard University. 

 Ranking with it are the herbarium of the New 

 York Botanical Garden, the United States na- 

 tional herbarium, and the herbarium of McGill 

 University, Montreal. In addition to these 

 there are numerous smaller ones in t museums 

 and colleges throughout America. 



In the herbarium of the Jardin des Plantes of 

 Paris there are a great many of the type speci- 

 mens from which American plants were named. 

 The greatest of all dried plant collections is in 

 Great Britain, at the Royal Gardens at Kew. 



HERBART, hehr'bahrt, JOHANN FRIEDRICH 

 (1776-1841), a German philosopher and the 

 founder of modern pedagogy. Few philoso- 

 phers or educators of any time or country have 

 had a wider and more lasting influence than has 



