INTRODUCTION XUl 



pupils and specialists, higher powers and a smaller field 

 are essential, but such expensive magnifiers are not 

 needed in the common plant -study of the beginner. 



It is a common mistake, in instructing beginners, to 

 teach them too much at one exercise. Enough will be 

 gained if the pupil's interest is merely awakened in some 

 new direction. The younger the pupil, the more impera- 

 tive is this caution not to overdo the instruction. It 

 may be sufficient for one day to di'op the suggestion that 

 there are many shapes and sizes of leaves ; then let the 

 pupil observe and reflect. 



It is to be feared that much of our nature -teaching 

 and nature -literature aim at little more than the pre- 

 sentation of interesting information, or even the telling 

 of entertaining stories; they are prone to pick out the 

 most demonstrative and striking objects, and, by filling 

 the pupil's mind with wonder for the curious and un- 

 usual, cause him to overlook the commoner things of 

 equal interest and of greater educative value. The 

 purely scientific teaching and literature, on the other 

 hand, are apt to discourage the pupil by the obtrusion 

 of set tasks, definitions and terminology. The writer 

 believes that the language of botany,— 'the terminology, — 

 should be picked up by the pupil as he goes along and 

 as he needs it, in the same way that he acquires his 

 common speech. 



The greater number of persons can never become bota- 

 nists, but most of them can have a living interest in 



