VI PREFACE. 



has been tlie author's main incitement in the prepa- 

 ration of this rudimentary work. 



It is needful here to state that the method of in- 

 struction developed in these pages is no mere educa- 

 tional novelty ; it has been tested, and its fitness for 

 the end proposed has been shown in practice. The 

 schedule feature which is here fully brought out, and 

 which is its leading peculiarity as a mode of study, 

 was devised and successfully used by Prof. J. S. 

 Henslow, of Cambridge, England. My attention 

 was first drawn to it as I was looking about in the 

 educational department of the South Kensington 

 Museum, in London. In a show-case of botanical 

 specimens, I noticed some slates covered with child- 

 ish handwriting, which proved to be illustrations of 

 a method of teaching Botany to the young. They 

 were furnished by Prof. Henslow for the Interna- 

 tional Exhibition of 1851. He died without pub- 

 lishing his method, but not without having subjected 

 it to thorough practical trial. He had gathered 

 together a class of poor country children, in the 

 parish where he officiated as clergyman, and taught 

 them Botany by a plan similar to the present, though 

 less simplified. The results of this experiment have 

 been given to the public by Dr. J. D. Hooker, Su 

 perintendent of the Botanical Gardens at Kew, who 

 was summoned to give evidence upon the subject 

 before a Parliamentary Commission on Education. 



