Making a Beginning. 



AFTER one has decided to place Nature Study in the day's 

 program the first question generally is, " Where shall I be- 

 gin? " The answer "Begin anywhere," is a correct one but 

 not a satisfactory one. Anywhere is a large country and one is soon 

 lost in it. It is only fair that those who urge a beginning should 

 point out a visible tangible point to start from. The only reason 

 I would hesitate to select such a point is that it might bethought I 

 considered that particular point an essential beginning. Let me 

 indicate one way in which a beginning may be made. First, the 

 teacher will look out over the field of Nature and consider, at 

 least in a general way, what kind of facts he expects to make use 

 of. These facts will be, of course, phenomena either of the life of 

 plants, of the life of animals, or of inorganic nature. It will be 

 hoped that in the course of time enough of the phenomena in each 

 of these realms will be seen clearly enough to understand some of 

 the larger relations of each, such as growth, development, adapta- 

 tion, succession and the like. 



With such conceptions in mind he will find on any day 

 during any season, simple phenomena which just at that time 

 may be used as a beginning in training in accurate seeing and clear 

 thinking. These at the same time may serve as valuable facts 

 which later will be, with other similar ones, an introduction to im- 

 portant generalizations. 



Let me illustrate from the life of plants. 



Thru the summer and fall various plants are busy distribut- 

 ing their seeds. They have manifold ways of doing this. Each 

 method is an ingenious contrivance adapted to certain conditions. 

 For example the large number of plants of California are so suc- 

 cessful in this work that against multitudes of enemies and ad- 

 verse circumstances they manage to hold their own year after 

 year and many of them have done so for ages. The whole sub- 

 ject of plant distribution is a great one and is far reaching in its 



