26 INTRODUCTION 



drawing, showing each part in its natural position. While 

 you are drawing, think of the life and growth of this plant ; 

 think of such questions about its life as you would ask it 

 if it could answer. Your drawing is not to be shaded or 

 indistinct, such as it might be in the art department. 

 Each line is to stand for something you see, and everything 

 you see is to have a line to stand for it — so far as that is 

 possible. Draw as well as you can, but remember this is 

 not an exercise in drawing. It is an exercise in observa- 

 tion and careful record. 



When the outline is completed, you will record with 

 words such of your observations as you could not record 

 in the drawing. You have been observing carefully. 

 Sight and feeling have both been working on this investiga- 

 tion. Few features of the structure or color or texture of 

 that plant should have escaped your keen senses. You 

 have noted also its general relations to its surroundings. 

 You are now to make a list of these observations which 

 will go along with the drawing to complete the record. 

 The writing will help explain the drawing, and the draw- 

 ing will help explain the writing. You made them for 

 just the same purpose. They are to record your obser- 

 vations. Observations are worth little unless they are 

 recorded. 



With that finished, the questioning begins. You have 

 made yourself think about that plant while you observed 

 it closely. Your thoughts raise questions. You will not 

 be satisfied now until some of your questions are answered, 

 and it is just here that one of the most excellent char- 

 acteristics of plant study appears. That excellent and to 

 you most valuable characteristic is that for some of the 

 questions you have raised you can find the answers for your- 



