THE CITY. 



43 



meters in circumference and, if in the worst case, it 

 can only offer to the children in the most modest man- 

 ner the opportunity of observing the organism of the 

 development and natural history of plants by means of 

 quite a few well-chosen examples. 



Even in the city, the school garden need not be in 

 any sense a peculiar botanical garden or teach any 

 novelties. Its aims should be not instruction in botany, 

 but in the characteristic plants of the home ; to intro- 

 duce the children not to the science of nature, but to 

 nature itself. And its object should be not merely to 

 bring the plant world near to the children, or to impart 

 directly the knowledge of natural history, but to take 

 advantage of those cultivating and educating moments 

 for the welfare and healing of the rising generation 

 which lie in the province of a knowledge of natural his- 

 tory, and which, alas, are not recognized or improved 

 by all teachers, by which insensibility this instruction is 

 often aimless. The* goal of the city school garden with 

 reference to education is the same in its nature as that 

 of the country ; and, even if individual aims of instruc- 

 tion fail, in their places others step forward, not less 

 important in their kind for the city child. 



THE CITY AND COUNTRY SCHOOL CONTRASTED. 



City and country school gardens cannot possibly be 

 arranged on one inflexible plan, any more than the 

 readers or curriculums of the school can be alike. The 

 country school garden may be expected especially to 

 awaken in the children their first taste for horticulture 

 and for the beautiful in nature, and give an oppor- 

 tunity to individuals to gain a knowledge of fruit- 



