ADVANTAGES OFFERED BY BOTANY. 303 



school-room, and to promote health by moderate open-air 

 exercise. 



VIII. The knowledge it imparts has a practical value in 

 various important directions. It is indispensable to the intel- 

 ligent pursuit of agriculture and horticulture avocations in 

 which more people are occupied and interested than in all 

 others put together. . 



IX. The study of plant-forms opens to us a world of grace, 

 harmony, and beauty, that is not without influence upon the 

 aesthetic feelings, and the appreciation of art. Intimately in- 

 volved as is the vegetable kingdom with the ever-changing 

 aspects of Nature, it is well fitted to attract the mind to the 

 fine features of scenery, and the grand effects of the natural 

 world. 



X. Knowledge of this subject is a source of pure and un- 

 failing personal enjoyment. Its objects constantly invite atten- 

 tion, and vary more or less with each locality, so that the 

 botanical student is always at home, and is always solicited by 

 something fresh and attractive, 



XI. The pursuit of Botany to its finer facts and subtler reve- 

 lations involves the mastery of the microscope one of the most 

 delicate and powerful of all instruments of observation. It 

 also opens the field of experiment, and affords opportunity for 

 cultivating manipulatory processes. 



XII. Notwithstanding the superficial prejudice against Bot- 

 any, as a kind of light, fancy subject, dealing with flowers an 

 " accomplishment" of girls it is nevertheless a solid and noble 

 branch of knowledge. It has intimate connections with all the 

 other sciences physics, chemistry, geology, meterology, and 

 physical geography helps them all, and is helped by all. It 

 treats of the phenomena of organization, and is the proper in- 

 troduction to the great subject of Biology the science of the 

 general laws of life. 



These considerations show that, for the purpose we have in 

 view the introduction of a subject into education which shall 

 extend through all its grades, and afford a methodical disci- 

 pline in the study of things Botany has eminent, if not unri- 

 valled claims to the attention of educators. 



