286 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vou. XXXII. 
of plants, but the important results, from the educational point of 
view, are the awakening of sympathy with natural objects, the sharp- 
ening of the powers of observation, and the strengthening of the 
faculty of reasoning from the object to laws and principles.” And 
once more: ‘ The collecting of natural objects is one of the delights 
of youth. Its interest lies not only in the securing of the objects 
themselves, but it appeals to the desire for adventure and exploration. 
Botanizing should be encouraged; yet there are cautions to be 
observed. The herbarium should be a means, not an end. To have 
collected and mounted a hundred plants is no merit; but to have 
collected ten plants which represent some theme or problem is 
eminently useful. Schools usually require that the pupils make an 
herbarium of a given number of specimens, but this is scarcely worth 
the effort. Let the teacher set each collector a problem. One pupil 
may make an herbarium representing all the plants of a given swale, 
or fence-row, or garden; another may endeavor to show all the forms 
or variations of the dandelion, pigweed, apple tree, timothy, or red 
clover; another may collect all the plants on his father’s farm, or all 
the weeds in a given field; another may present an herbarium show- 
ing all the forest trees or all the kinds of fruit trees of the neighbor- 
hood, and so on.” 
The style of the book is very clear and often remarkably vivid. 
Occasionally a whole landscape is crowded into a line or two, as in 
the following: “ Most persons are familiar with the flowering dog- 
wood, the small twisted-grained tree which hangs its pink-white 
sprays against the woodlands in early spring.” 
All of the illustrations are original, many are excellent, and some 
are very unique and attractive, e.g., the group of dandelions, the 
mayflower, the hepaticas, the turnip field showing “a battle for life.” 
The book has a full table of contents, a register of illustrations (to 
which most of the Latin names are relegated), a glossary, and a good 
index. The body of the work is divided into parts, chapters, and 
numbered paragraphs, so as to make it very convenient for use. The 
introduction tells how the book may be used and how it came to be 
written. The first part of the text proper is devoted to studies of 
twigs and buds. This is followed by studies of leaves and foliage, 
studies of flowers, studies of fructification, studies of the propagation 
of plants, studies of the behavior and habits of plants, studies of 
the kinds of plants, and an appendix containing suggestions and : 
reviews. It is not forgotten that country schoolhouses are usu- 
ally forlorn places, and some pages and several pictures are devoted 
