INTBODUCTION VU 



secondary schools. There is no objection whatever to the 

 pupil using the book. It is to be hoped that the book 

 can do him no harm. But the teacher is advised to lay 

 it aside after studying it, simply because a live teacher 

 and a live plant are worth very much more than a 

 book and a picture. 



2. The pupil may use it in the same way that the 

 teacher should. Many teachers to whom botany falls in 

 the secondary schools have too- many subjects on their 

 hands to enable them to give adequate attention to any 

 one of them ; and some of them have tastes in other 

 directions. Then give the pupil the book. Tell him to 

 read a lesson ; then let him collect the specimens and 

 recite from the specimens, not from the book. The book 

 will awaken his interest, and suggest what there is to 

 be seen. There is a current notion that the pupil 

 should be given the specimen and be told to find what 

 there is to be learned about it, wholly without sug- 

 gestions. The author does not believe in this method, 

 particularly not for beginners. Pupils first need the 

 inspiration of a teacher. They need a start. With 

 the specimens alone, the great mass of pupils see noth- 

 ing and become listless. It is not true that only 

 those things are useful which one finds out for himself, 

 else we could make little progress. But the pupil 

 should find out something for himself ; and more than 

 all, he should enjoy the finding of it. In the present 

 status of the secondary schools, the author expects that 



