THE STUDY OF PLANTS 31 



clear thought working on facts you can observe will fur- 

 nish you an explanation tor this, but hasty thinking is 

 almost sure to lead you into error. 



Thinking attentively, you are almost sure to find some 

 explanation of what you have observed. The next step 

 is to test the explanation. See whether an) - other will do 

 as well. For example, you might explain the refreshed 

 look of plants after a rain by saying that the leaves absorb 

 water as it falls on them. But another explanation of this 

 fact will do as well, and other facts, discovered later, will 

 show which is more nearly true. 



New facts will constantly become your property as you 

 proceed, and help you form explanations of such matters. 

 Your later studies will thus be lessons in one of the great 

 uses of facts — the use of them in forming explanations. 



10. The Notebook. — The notebook is usually the most 

 unpopular feature of high school botany ; this is natural, 

 since boys and girls of your age usually find writing and 

 drawing tasks disagreeable. 



Though the task may seem small and insignificant, to 

 do your best is not small or insignificant, and to do less is 

 to lose much, for it is to lose respect for the sincerity of 

 your own effort. A sentiment like that might be useful 

 on every page of a science notebook. Nothing in the 

 whole course is better training for you than the keeping 

 of the right sort of notebook, keeping it carefully, and 

 keeping it up to date. It deserves your best efforts, and 

 will reward them. It is the best device yet found for in- 

 suring careful observation and careful record, two things 

 indispensable to science. 



As to the drawing, against which so many rebel, you 



