72 



BEGINNERS' BOTANY 



direct, and natural relation to his subject, as he commonly meets 

 it, that the obvious and significant features of the plant world be 

 ex])lained to him and be made a means of training him. The 

 beginning pupil cannot be expected to know tlie fundamental 

 physiological processes, nor is it necessary that these processes 

 should be known in order to have a point of view and trained 

 intelligence on the things that one customarily sees. Many a 

 pupil has had a so-called laboratory course in botany without 

 having arrived at any real conception of what plants mean, or 

 without having had his mind opened to any real sympathetic 

 touch with liis environment. Even if one's knowledge be not 

 deep or extensive, it may still be accurate as far as it goes, and 

 his outlook on the subject may be rational. 



Fig. 87. — The Many-stemmed Thickets of Mangrove of Southern- 

 most Seacoasts, many of the trunks being formed of aerial roots. 



