SOME COMMON OBJECTS 47 



willing to study helpful books, and benefit by the 

 instruction of others. While I do not suggest that 

 any microscopist should abstain from general obser- 

 vations, I certainly advocate the taking up of a 

 special line of study which mil lead to intellectual 

 development and expertness in manipulation. 



As a slight indication of scientific method I will 

 allude briefly to botanical study. Presuming that 

 the reader is disposed to specialize in this line, how 

 is he to proceed ? If his knowledge of botany is 

 vague or nil, he must first study an elementary 

 primer, so as to get the general " hang " of the 

 subject. Elizabeth Healey's " First Book of 

 Botany " will serve as an introduction, and I can 

 also recommend " Botany " by J. Reynolds Green 

 in Dent's Scientific Primers series. My ovm " Wild 

 Flowers and their Wonderful Ways " might also be 

 mentioned. These three books are very inexpensive. 

 After digesting the contents of a primer, a more 

 ambitious work should be studied, and at this stage 

 no better book could be read than D. H. Scott's 

 " Structural Botany." This book will prove a good 

 theoretical guide, and by the time the worker is 

 familiar with its contents he will be prepared to 

 benefit by the instruction and guidance in practical 

 investigation afforded by Bower and Gwynne- 

 Vaughan's " Practical Botany for Beginners." This 

 book is packed with directions relating to the use 

 of the microscope in botanical study, and in terse 

 language outlines numerous experiments. With 

 such a book for a guide the worker will be able to 

 proceed from step to step in microscopic investiga- 

 tion, and will have the satisfaction, not only of seeing 



