BOTANY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



FIRST CONVERSATION. 



Laura. Sister, what kind of flowers are 

 these? 



Emily. I have never examined them par- 

 ticularly enough to discover their name. But 

 you must not gather any of them as they are 

 poisonous. 



L. If you do not know their name and have 

 not paid much attention to them, I should like 

 to know how you are aware they are at all dan- 

 gerous ? 



E. It will be a means of showing you 

 Laura, how a very little knowledge is of great 

 use sometimes. I knew the nature of the flow- 

 ers from a rule framed by botanists, which says, 

 that all plants with five stamens and one pistil, 

 with a dull colored lurid corolla, and of a nau- 

 seous sickly smell, are always poisonous. Many 

 a life has been spared and much trouble pre- 

 vented by simple attention to this rule. 



