THE STUDY OF PLANTS 29 



tell what questions are sensible and what are not. You 

 will make a list of what seem to you sensible ones. Your 

 teacher will discuss these lists, and select for your further 

 study one or two questions whose answers it is quite pos- 

 sible for you yourself to find. 



The first lesson now is over. The drawing and the 

 writing are the only visible evidences of what you have 

 done. But the most important part of the lesson is the 

 invisible part, the part that goes on in your brain. How- 

 ever excellent the drawing and the writing may appear, 

 the lesson is a failure unless this drawing and this writing 

 have been produced by your brain alone. Have you 

 borrowed ideas from any one else? Then, for your own 

 sake, do the lesson over with some other plant. 



It may be that your first plant study will not be the 

 study of a whole plant. It may be the study of a part of 

 a plant, such as a flower or a seed. But whatever the 

 material used in this first study, whether it be the whole 

 plant or only one part of it, the method of study you are 

 to use is the same. It is the method which has just been 

 described. 



9. Later Studies. — Your first study will result in a col- 

 lection of facts and of questions. Your later studies will 

 result in explanations as well as in facts and questions. 



As a part of your first study you are to prepare a fist 

 of questions. Those chosen from your list for further 

 study may be like these: What is the work of roots? of 

 stems ? of leaves ? A complete answer to any one of these 

 questions has not been worked out by botanists themselves, 

 yet the principal kinds of work done by roots and stems and 

 leaves are not difficult for you to discover for yourself. 



