PREFACE 5 
modified leaf stem; and cabbage, a gigantic bud, and probably 
the most perfect specimen in the world for the study of bud 
formation. 
The specimens were selected largely with economy in view, 
since many teachers are obliged to provide their own material 
for nature study, and therefore the cheapest and most common 
have been given the preference. 
The laboratory exercises should be closely correlated with 
oral language in the form of question and answer, and to this 
the lessons lend themselves readily. The topics are so arranged 
as to be cast into questions by the teacher with the words “ Do 
you see—” or “ Have you found —” the skin, stone, midrib, etc. ; 
“What is —” the color, taste, smell; or “ Describe —” the taste, 
smell, knock-sound, pinch-sound, feel of the skin, etc.; and the 
teacher can thus appear at the best advantage before her class, 
because she can take an active part in the lesson and follow it 
closely from the book without being in the least mechanical. 
The lessons inay be used as a basis for written language, 
but this should never under any circumstances be given upon 
the same day as the lesson. The written work must be looked 
upon as a memory test, not as an exposition of facts. The written 
work can never perform the same function for the adult and 
the child. In the first place, the adult has written language at 
command, the child has not; in the second, the college student 
who takes notes is preparing himself for science, the child is 
getting tre preliminary processes before his preparation can be 
beoun; therefore, the best results of the nature lessons are lost 
when the teacher tries to turn them into compositions or scien- 
tific descriptions made from the object. 
It is perfectly right to use the new ideas of nature lessons 
