86 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



plants are the most suitable to begin with is the principle under- 

 lying this section of the Nature Study Book. 



The study of flowering plants may be begun in several ways, 

 and the difficulties for the unassisted student lie in great part in 

 making a proper start. One very common method is to start by 

 trying to name all the plants met with in a district by the help of 

 a book of descriptions, or what is known as a Flora. This is an 

 excellent thing to do later on, but has disadvantages as a way of 

 beginning. The student is liable to be bewildered by the number 

 of plants, and the descriptions are necessarily brief and concerned 

 with the features that serve to distinguish one plant from another 

 rather than with their uses to the living plant. An opposite 

 course, the thorough study of the life history, form, and minute 

 structure of one plant, requires the assistance of a teacher and 

 more complicated apparatus than the plan which is here suggested. 



We shall start from the fact that, however slight his real know- 

 ledge of plants may be, every one knows a number of wild and 

 cultivated plants by name, and can recognise them when in flower. 

 The Buttercup, the Daisy, the Dandelion, the Tulip, the Potato, 

 and the Oak, for example, may be assumed to be either known to 

 the reader, or at least to be so commonly known that he will have 

 no difficulty in getting them pointed out to him, and in obtaining 

 specimens for study. In the following pages a number of plants, 

 which may thus be assumed to be familiar, have been selected, 

 and a description given of what can be seen when they are care- 

 fully examined with the assistance of only simple apparatus. 

 This description is meant to help the teacher in his own study of 

 the plant. His teaching should be based upon his own observa- 

 tions, not upon this or any other written description. 



It was mentioned as one of the drawbacks of commencing 

 by naming the plants of a district, that it concentrated atten- 

 tion on the differences between plants without considering the 

 relation of these differences to the life of the plants. In studying 

 the plants described below, the use to the plant of the various parts 

 is always to be borne in mind. It will be found that the general 

 features in which flowering plants resemble one another are related 

 to processes of life common to all these plants. Special features 

 of the roots, stems, leaves, and especially of the flowers, require 



