208 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



He next works out the leaf in the same manner, and 

 says : — 



We can, then, describe the dandelion leaves concisely as radi- 

 cal, alternate, runcinate, pinnately veined, glabrous. 



The flower is then taken up, and he says : — 



We can describe the dandelion blossom, using the terms above 

 defined, as : Growing on a naked, hollow scape, composite, with 

 an involucre of (usually) three rows of imbricated linear green 

 bracts, the inner longer row erect, the outer rows reflexed. Indi- 

 vidual flowers arranged in a close head. Parts epigenous, borne 

 on a short beak. Calyx a pappus of many fine white hairs. 

 Corolla yellow, strap-shaped, with five teeth. Stamens five, epipet- 

 alous, syngenesious. Pistil one, with one-celled, one-seeded 

 ovary (forming in fruit an akene), with a long style, two-cleft. 



Ye gods and little fishes ! if any one claims that this is 

 what Tennyson meant by learning " root and all, and all in 

 all," if any one maintains that this is " nature study," and 

 not college or university botany, — they have me to settle 

 with, and to the bitter end. If such stuff as this is to enter 

 our schools and be taught to the children, I know of one 

 parent who shall feel compelled to send his children to some 

 other country to be educated. 



After the 37 pages of technical botany, with here and 

 there a dash of poetry to redeem it, chapter II. follows witlj 

 50 solid pages on the rabbit, but not a snatch of verse to 

 break the monotony. The life and habits of the animal are 

 described in detail in the most wooden and mechanical fash- 

 ion possible, and the chapter ends with a lengthy discussion 

 of the comparative anatomy of bones. The picture of the 

 skeleton, which you see on this page (showing), sags back 

 in a scared-to-death attitude which has always put me in 

 mind of Balaam's ass, when she saw the angel of the Lord 

 in the way and refused to carry the prophet farther. I have 

 often wondered why this did not occur to the author, and why 

 he did not have his eyes opened at this point and turn back. 

 He did not, however, but forged ahead for 500 pages more. 



But, you ask, how does such work carry the test of 



