DESIRABLE KNOWLEDGE 65 



an excellent opportunity for any and all of its 

 members to acquire this desirable knowledge, 

 while the rural surroundings of many of them 

 supply those "happy hunting grounds" that turn 

 the study into a delight. In our Board Schools 

 the pressure of work is already tremendous, while 

 their situation in the midst of our crowded streets 

 is a great drawback. While therefore we have 

 thousands of children in our midst who are 

 passing in this or that standard, who can repeat 

 the order of succession of the kings of Judah, on 

 what river the most insignificant town in Europe 

 is situated, or the natural products of Alaska, 

 such natural products of their own land as a stag- 

 beetle, a glow-worm, or the golden stars of the 

 celandine, of which in their Readers they find the 

 poet Wordsworth singing the praises, are unknown 

 to them. 



The want of this knowledge is not only the 

 loss of much pleasure, but has at times its incon- 

 veniences. Such knowledge is not a mere aesthetic 

 whim, but a possession of downright practical value. 

 We had a curious little illustration of this lately. 

 A great bird-fancier told us that he found it so 

 difficult to get a sufficient quantity of groundsel 

 that he had been planting roots of it in his own 

 garden so as to ensure a perennial home supply, 

 but that he had been entirely unsuccessful in rear- 

 ing it. The groundsel is an annual, and springs 



5 



