310 THE EDUCATIONAL CLAIMS OP BOTANY. 



semblances and contrasts. As he gradually becomes able to 

 grasp more numerous and remote relations of similarity, he 

 takes in larger assemblages of characters, and is required to ex- 

 ercise his judgment in working out the relationships among 

 larger divisions of plant-forms, and at last, by the aid of man- 

 uals, he is ready to pass to the complete classification of the 

 vegetable kingdom, and is thus prepared to comprehend those 

 great laws of the multiplication and distribution of organic life 

 in space and time which are so impressively disclosed in the 

 natural history of the Vegetable World. 



Pursued in this practical and systematic way, beginning 

 early and going carefully and gradually over the rudiments, 

 one of the most interesting and important of the sciences can 

 be made an " exact and solid " acquisition, while the mental 

 habits of attention and observation are cultivated, aptitude in 

 the accurate use of descriptive language is acquired, the capacity 

 of self-reliant research is developed, there is training in com 

 parison, inference, and reason, on the basis of known facts, and 

 a methodical discipline of the judgment is secured all of which 

 are the most valuable results of rational education. 



