METHOD OF STUDYING MATERIAL. 223 



" lance-shaped," and micropyle (the opening in the 

 skin of the seed through which the growing end of the 

 embryo pushes) means "little gate," and calyx means 

 " cup," and pinnately means "like a feather," they will 

 remember the terms more readily, and use them more 

 intelligently. If the oldest children know the meaning 

 of a few root words, they can often form many words 

 by combining these ; such words, for instance, as epi, 

 upon, and peri, around, and hypo, under, used in form- 

 ing the botanical terms, epi-sepalous, epi-petalous, epigy- 

 nous, perigynous, etc. 



In the case of words describing forms, such as those 

 relating to leaves, it will be found helpful to have 

 charts prepared and hung up in the schoolroom showing 

 the forms and the words together. These will keep the 

 forms and the words expressing them constantly asso- 

 ciated before the pupils' eyes. The pupils can refer to 

 these charts to find the proper terms to express exactly 

 the forms of the leaves or other objects they are studying. 



As has been said before, the story of life history, 

 of development from germ to adult, may be brought 

 out in connection with life and function, or after the 

 study of structure. When the children can watch de- 

 velopment, as of the tadpole into the frog, and of the 

 caterpillar into the butterfly, this becomes a study of 

 successive adaptations, or adaptations to different envi- 

 ronments, and may well be studied in connection with 

 habits as a preparation for structure. Where the story 

 of life history is simply told to the children, it is best, 

 in general, to leave it to the last, that is, until after 



