H4 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



this point of view. Sometimes the causes of success can be 

 traced in the vegetative growth of the plant, or in its means of 

 vegetative reproduction. The success and spread of the Daisy 

 in a lawn, for example, or of the Creeping Buttercup on 

 waste ground, are illustrations of this. The use of the tubers of 

 the Potato to the plant can only be realised when growing plants 

 are examined, and the value of this mode of reproduction to the 

 plant when growing wild can be inferred. Another important set 

 of observations that must be made in the open are those on the way 

 in which flowers are pollinated, and on the relations between 

 flowers and insects. While the probable effect of insects visiting 

 a flower can be made out by dissecting the flower at home, only 

 patient observation can show whether insects visit it, what insects 

 come, and how they behave when feeding. This work demands 

 time, but is of the greatest interest. The dispersal of seeds and 

 fruits also affords many opportunities for open-air observations. 



Another direction which practical work should take is the 

 cultivation of selected plants, and the study of their whole life- 

 history. Easily grown plants should be chosen, and should be 

 planted either in a small school garden or, if no ground is available, 

 in pots or boxes. The Pea grown from seed, the Potato grown from 

 the tuber, the Crocus from its corm, and the Tulip or Narcissus 

 from the bulbs, are examples of very easily cultivated plants from 

 among those described below. A sufficient number of plants 

 should always be started to allow of specimens being dug up at 

 intervals and examined at various ages. The study of one or two 

 plants in this way will indicate the sort of observations which 

 can be made on the life-history or annual history of others in the 

 wild state, if they are examined periodically throughout the year. 



The study of single plants on the lines that have been indicated 

 will lead, on the one hand, to the recognition and collection of the 

 flowering plants of the locality, and to their identification with the 

 help of a flora, that is, to the study of the classification of plants. 

 On the other hand, it will form a valuable preliminary to the study 

 of plant communities, which is treated of in another volume of 

 this work. 



