34 NATURE STUDY AND AGRICULTURE 



ability to apply the terms lanceolate, ovate, cordate, etc., 

 to the proper forms; serrate, dentate, etc., to the proper 

 toothing; and palmate, pinnate, etc., to the proper veining. 

 Such work is often done seriously and with the idea that a 

 knowledge of these names means a knowledge of the leaf. 

 If a technical name is used at all it should be used like the 

 name of an individual; useful to distinguish the individual 

 upon introduction, but by no means implying acquaintance. 

 What we want in nature study is not a series of introduc- 

 tions merely, but an increasing acquaintance and fellow- 

 ship. 



It may be claimed that we know little more about most 

 things than the names we have given them. This is very 

 true, but we can learn to ask intelligent questions, which 

 is far more important in this work than being supplied 

 simply with answers to questions. The method is more 

 important than the matter. This is the attitude of mind 

 that nature study should cultivate, rather than the idea 

 that a name is the end-all. That leaves vary in form, 

 toothing, and venation is very evident; and it is a good 

 thing to impress this fact and the range of variation. The 

 end of all this, however, is not to apply names to the varia- 

 tions, but to suggest the question as to what all this variation 

 means in the life-work of the plants. To be able to ask in- 

 telligent questions is after all about the best we can do in the 

 present state of knowledge in reference to nature. 



Factitious Interest. — This means that use of playful and 

 imaginative devices for securing an interest that the real 

 object is supposed to lack. Here is where the majority 

 of books on nature study get in their deadly work, with 

 their personifications and romances. We sometimes find 



