THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



99 



Hence, even though not intended to be 

 systematically studied, flowers should 

 form a prominent feature in the sur- 

 roundings of all our schools. But this 

 interest in color and form — this in- 

 stinctire love of what is beautifixl in 

 nature — is deepened into admiration 

 for nature's ways of working, when we 

 look more closely into the structure 

 and uses of the various pai'ts of plants, 

 and see how wonderfully these parts 

 are adapted for the special purposes 

 they have to fulfil in the plant's life- 

 history. 



In this closer examination, also, the 

 truth is gradually borne in iipon us 

 that the floral world around us, peo- 

 pled though it is with forms almost 

 endless in variety, is nevertheless not a 

 chaos, but a well-ordered system, and | 

 we come to recognize family likenesses 

 between plants which to the untrained 

 eye do not at first resemble each other 

 in any respect. To the ordinary ob- 

 server, for instance, thex'e is nothing in 

 common between the locvist tree and 

 the clover growing about its base ; yet 

 a very moderate botanical training en- 

 ables one to see that the flowers of these 

 two plants are constructed on precisely 

 the same plan, that a similar plan is 

 manifested in the structure of their 

 leaves, and that even the mode of 

 growth of the stem is the same in both. 

 If our botanical studies are conducted 

 in a proper way, we are led to find out 

 all such facts, and many others, for our- 

 selves by the use of our own eyes ; our 

 powers of observation are trained and 

 strengthened, and we are irresistibly 

 led to the exercise of our reasoning 

 faculties in drawing inferences of vari- 

 ous kinds from the facts which we ob- 

 sej've. We are taught to think /or our- 

 selves. And no study accomplishes this 

 high aim more effectually than botany, 

 when rightly pursued. 



In the following papers it will be the 

 aim of the writer to present only such 



botanical facts as can be readily ob- 

 served and comprehended by even very 

 young readers. We shall, from the 

 very outset, study plants themselves, 

 and the wi'iter will be much disap- 

 pointed if those who attentively follow 

 the lessons do not shortly find them- 

 selves qualified to go into the fields and 

 woods and with little difl&culty deter- 

 mine the proper name and relationship 

 of any of our common plants. To be 

 sure this is not the highest aim of 

 botany, but the consciousness of the 

 power to do even this is a great source 

 of pleasure to the young ; it leads to 

 pleasant summer outings in search of 

 new plants, and to the formation of 

 collections, in which much innocent 

 pride may be taken, and in the making 

 of which habits of neatness and care- 

 fulness are necessarily cultivated. 



LESSON I. 



As it is the design of these lessons 

 that you shall learn the simpler facts 

 of botany by actually handling plants 

 themselves, and seeing with your own 

 eyes all those things to which your at- 

 tention will be drawn, the first thing 

 you must do, always, is to get the 

 plants or pai*ts of plants that will be 

 mentioned at the beginning of each 

 lesson. Sometimes these specimen 

 plants will be wild ones, so that you 

 must go into the fields or woods to get 

 them ; but we shall also, when it suits 

 our purpose, take plants from the gar- 

 den, or weeds which grow by our road- 

 sides and near all our houses. So that, 

 generally, you will not have much, if 

 any, trouble in finding everything you 

 want. 



Now, for the first lesson we shall ex- 

 amine roughly the whole of two or 

 three plants, so as to get a general idea 

 of all the parts which go to make up 

 their structure. After that we shall 

 spend some time upon each of the parts 

 separately, comparing together the same 



