HOW TO STUDY PLANT LIFE 89 



favored relation. He is not on bowing terms 

 with its relation, and he regards this type of 

 gratis information as just one degree more 

 boring than Mrs. Brown's recital of how her 

 "sister's husband's step-brother married Mrs. 

 Smith's cousin, Susan Ellen Kobinson as- 

 was." Neither statement leaves him with a 

 thirst for further knowledge ! 



Unless you are chatting with botanists, tell 

 your friends the English names only of the 

 plants they find, for these are easily remem- 

 bered. Do not worry people with numbers and 

 parts, for they are usually as ignorant of plant 

 organs as you were yourself a few months or 

 years ago ! Tell, instead, any interesting story 

 you know of the plant's method of reproducing 

 itself ; its wonderful plan for self-fertilization, 

 or for preventing this and securing cross-fer- 

 tilization ; but tell all this in the simple, chatty, 

 unaffected manner that invites questions. 

 Avoid technical terms as much as you can, and 

 when asked a question you cannot answer 

 own up and say you do not know ! 



