iv PREFACE. 



But the present book has a still stronger claim to 

 attention ; it develops a new method of study which is 

 designed to correct that which is confessedly the deep- 

 est defect of our current education. This defect is the 

 almost total lack of any systematic cultivation of the 

 observing powers. Although all real knowledge 

 begins in attention to things, and consists in the dis- 

 crimination and comparison of the likenesses and dif- 

 ferences among objects ; yet, strange to say, in our 

 vaunted system of instruction there is no provision 

 for the regular training of the perceptive faculties. 

 That which should be first and fundamental is hardly 

 attended to at all. "We train in mathematics, and 

 cram the contents of books, but do little to exercise 

 the mind upon the realities of Nature, or to make it 

 alert, sensitive, and intelligent, in respect to the order 

 of the surrounding world. 



Something, indeed, has been done in the way of 

 object-teaching, although but little that is satisfactory. 

 These exercises are notoriously loose, desultory, inco- 

 herent, and superficial, and hardly deserve the name 

 of mental training. What is wanted is, that object- 

 studies shall become more close and methodic, and 

 that the observations shall be wrought into connected 

 and organized knowledge. It is the merit of Botany 

 that, beyond all other studies, it is suited to the 

 attainment of this end. Plants furnish abundant 

 and ever-varying materials for observation. The ele- 



