THE STUDY OF PLANTS 21 



thing just now is not what reason seems to you important, 

 but that some reason seems to you important. Try to 

 find some reason or reasons why the study of plants is 

 important to you personally. Try to find a reason that 

 makes you willing to do hard work in order to get from this 

 study that which is important to you. Certainly there are 

 such reasons. It is for you to find them out and apply 

 them to yourself. If you can do this, the work is sure to 

 be interesting and profitable. If you cannot do it, the 

 work will probably seem difficult and tiresome. It is 

 possible for each new exercise to be to you like a new 

 scene in a play which pleases you. It is also possible for 

 the whole course to be disagreeable. Which it is to be for 

 you depends principally upon yourself. 



7. Ways of doing It. You will study about plants in 

 two quite distinct ways. It is important to distinguish 

 between them and to realize the value of each. 



With one of these ways you are already familiar. It is 

 the way in which you have already been doing most of 

 your studying. It is the way in which you will learn most 

 of the facts which you are expected to learn. When 

 studying in this way about plants you do not learn from 

 the plant itself, but you learn, from a book or from your 

 teacher, what some one else has learned from the plant 

 itself. This method is important because it is a great 

 time saver, but to use this method alone would lead you 

 to depend too much upon your books and teacher and too 

 little on yourself. You must respect and use the knowl- 

 edge of others, but you must also respect and use your own 

 powers to gain knowledge for yourself ; otherwise you lose 

 them. This indirect method is called the didactic method. 



