28 LEAVES, FLOWERS, AND FRUIT 



occasionally the number of petals needs to be counted. In 

 all these eases the bright and conspicuous parts of flowers 

 are called petals, even where the scientist has in the end 

 determined that they are better called sepals or bracts. 

 The attempt has been made to use only such words about 

 flowers as any one, without studying botany, can properly 

 apply. The keys are only to be used as keys, not as 

 containing exhaustive information, giving none but the 

 points needed to decide the name of the plant. They are 

 intended to enable the student to find the names of the 

 plants. Not because it will lead the inquirer to think that 

 finding the name of anything is the end of study — this 

 expresses so much of the criticism of keys — for it is but 

 its beginning. An introduction is a necessary first step to 

 an acquaintance. Without knowing a name we cannot 

 use books containing detailed information and, more than 

 this, we cannot make an independent investigation. We 

 need to call by some name anything about which we 

 wish to make mental or written notes and it ought to be 

 a name in general use and, if possible, one applied in 

 books. 



Dr. Henry van Dyke has well expressed a universal 

 truth about naming things, though many scientists in col- 

 lege and university devote much time to decry and deny 

 it. In " Little Rivers " he says : " There is a secret pleasure 

 in finding these delicate flowers in the rough heart of the 

 wilderness. It is like discovering the veins of poetry in 

 the character of a guide or a lumberman. And to be able 

 to call the plants by name makes them a hundredfold more 

 sweet and-intimate. Naming things is one of the oldest 

 and simplest of human pastimes. Children play at it 

 with their dolls and toy animals. In fact, it was the first 

 game ever played on earth, for the Creator who planted 

 the garden eastward in Eden knew well what would please 

 the childish heart of man when he brought all the new- 

 made creatures to Adam, 'to see what he would call 

 them.'" 



