v i PREFATORY. 



of a complete whole, and each hour of every 

 outing is an unclouded joy. Nature never ex- 

 cuses our ignorance. 



Whatever one's position in life, does a 

 knowledge of Nature prove unneeded ? Should 

 we not know that potatoes grow beneath the sod, 

 as well as apples grow upon trees ? Gather a 

 crowd at random on the streets, or corner a half- 

 dozen at some social gathering, and how many 

 can tell you the life-history of a mushroom or a 

 truffle ? " Do potatoes grow upon bushes ? " was 

 asked not long since. This was positively pain- 

 ful, but worse things have happened. A young 

 lady, from a city renowned for its schools, start- 

 led her country cousins by asking, while toying 

 with an ear of corn, " Which end, when you 

 plant, do you put in the ground, the blunt or 

 the pointed one ? " If botany is impracticable 

 in the curriculum of the public schools, ought 

 not, at least, the natural history of our common 

 articles of food to be taught? Can not such 

 ignorance as this implied be banished from the 

 land? 



But I have wandered ; let us come back to 

 books. If books, even those descriptive of na- 

 ture, are out of place in the woods, meadows, or 

 by the brook-side, when should they be read? 

 Clearly, when the scenes they treat of are not ac- 

 cessible. Why should we be entertained with a 



