THE STUDY OF PLANTS 25 



not help you much. The important part of the lesson is 

 what you find out for yourself. It may not be easy for 

 you to find out things for yourself. You have been in the 

 habit of finding things out in books. Now you must also 

 learn how to find things out without books. You must 

 use your own good powers of observation and of reasoning. 

 Your brain may have formed the lazy habit of letting other 

 brains think for it. It is time to make it begin to think 

 for itself. Perhaps the best thing about the study of 

 plants is that it does make you think for yourself, at least, 

 it ought to, and this first lesson with a plant may be the 

 most important lesson in your life. It may be your first 

 lesson in using your brain for all it is worth, and not for only 

 a part of what it is worth. For you it is a serious matter 

 and calls for the best effort you know how to make. 



Any plant will do for this first study. A plant, a piece 

 of paper, and yourself awake, and we have materials for 

 the first lesson which cannot be excelled. It is easy to 

 supply the plant and paper. Any teacher can supply 

 these, but no teacher can supply yourself awake. That 

 rests with you. By yourself awake is meant awake in all 

 your senses, attentive to the matter in hand, ready to 

 appreciate its importance to you and to accept its invita- 

 tion to self-improvement. You are to be an investigator, 

 and the little plant before you is to be the subject of your 

 investigation. The first step is to observe it carefully. 

 Nothing makes us more sure to observe carefully than to 

 draw the thing we are observing. So you are to make a 

 careful outline drawing of this plant. Remember all the 

 time that it is a living thing just as much as you are, and 

 that each tiny part or position of a part may be important 

 in this life you are investigating. Make a clear outline 



