28 INTRODUCTION 



get results. The great thing is to keep that power at work. 

 It is not at work whenever I let others do thinking for me 

 that I should do for myself." You will go out from your 

 study of plants, if you study them as we would have you, 

 feeling new power growing within you. You have your 

 own clear brain, and you are learning how to use it. It is 

 the most valuable thing in the world when rightly used, 

 and nobody has two. 



But to go back to your questions. Dreams of power must 

 never make us miss the next careful step. If we do miss it, 

 we never shall reach our goal. Perhaps the little plant 

 before you is a geranium in a pot. You will look it over. 

 You will remember what you already know about it. You 

 know that the parts you see are leaves and stems and that 

 in the soil there are roots. What are they for ? You know 

 that plants grow, and hence you conclude that they are 

 alive. What are the surroundings in which they will 

 grow and what are those in which they will not grow? 

 You know that living things require food. Where does the 

 plant get its food? How does it grow? You know that 

 this plant may presently produce a cluster of flowers. 

 What are they for? You know that it reproduces itself. 

 Though it dies, its kind does not die. Thus you already 

 know that plants, like all other living things, have two 

 great kinds of work to do. One is to keep themselves alive, 

 the other is to keep their kind alive. One is nutrition, the 

 other reproduction. 



It seems fair and helpful to give you this much of a 

 start. But now the suggestions stop, and you must go on 

 alone. You will observe and draw the different parts of 

 the plant. You will note other facts and other questions 

 will occur to you. Your own common sense will help you 



