NATURE STUDY, TEACHER, AND CHILD 45 



sun, the action of the rain, snow, and frost, the chemical agents 

 in Mother Earth, may all be dealt with in quite a simple way, 

 but it will be as well to point out also that there is something 

 beyond what we grown-ups call protoplasmic force, namely, 

 the magic and mystery of the producer of the thing called Life. 

 Then follow on with the story of the seedling. If it is an acorn 

 that is being studied, relate 

 the early struggles for exist- 

 ence of the tiny sapling, how 

 it manages to obtain for itself 

 a place in the great world of 

 life. Let it be fully realised 

 how patient and persevering 

 plants are. They are content 

 to build up their various parts, 

 little by little, step by step. 

 Time is of vast importance 

 to them, and the perseverance 

 they display may well serve 

 as an object-lesson of how we 

 ourselves may, by diligence 

 and ambition, contrive to be- 

 come stronger and better as 

 the years roll by. 



Get to know these wild and 

 garden treasures for yourselves. 

 Experience is a wise foster- 

 parent, and one never knows 

 how useful such may prove 

 when coming into contact with 

 others desirous of learning, and 

 anxious to know. The child interested in Nature lore simply 

 yearns for information pleasantly imparted, and there is no 

 telling what vision may be conjured up which will, per- 

 chance, mature in after-life. The late Lord Avebury first 

 became attracted, as a boy, to the wonderful life story of the 

 common White Dead Nettle, which grows in most country 

 districts, and blossoms almost throughout the whole year. There 

 is no telling what magnetic influence that first sight of the way- 

 side flower had upon young Lubbock's life, comparable, if you 

 will, with the sunset that Alexander Irvine witnessed, as I have 

 already related. In the one case it was something infinitely 



14. WHITE DEAD NETTLE. 



