NOTES AND LITERATURE 



GENERAL BIOLOGY 



The Spirit of Nature Study.' — Nature may be approached in a 

 very unscientific spirit. Thus Emerson was led to dedicate to the 

 Bofanist the folloAving quatrain: 



Do thou of the Ages ask 

 What me the Hours will bring. 



What the hours brought he so ex])resse(l that tli(^ Rhodora has become 

 a universal type of Ix^tanic bt^aiity. In a different spirit the New 

 England botanists named their join-nal Rhodora, for they profess 

 to have been uninfluenced by Emerson's familiar lines; they sought 

 a characteristic local plant with a short name which would commend 

 itself to bibliographers. The spirit of nature studv, accorduig to Dr. 

 Bigelow's interpretation, combines the seiuuncnt.il .irid the scientific, 

 with its emphasis upon the former. This ;ij)|H'ars iii such iHi\ ice as, — 

 "Take frequent rambles into the countrv; nsxxmu' wuh natural 



rcnicmbranccs ot them. . . . Mil)sr(|nciu vcars ot trouble cannot oblit- 

 ('rat(> the clianiicd niij)rcssi(.ns.' - At ilic iic.M stopping place there 

 will !)(■ no taircr huidscaiH-. imr inoiv i.caimtiil skies, no statelier 

 tn... nioi.- loNon. m,,,.,,..^ ik.i l.ii^ln. i tluuers; more cheerful 



Therefore nuuv time sh.ml.l I.e uivcn t.. natinv study in the schools, 

 and many educ-ators niv (pi.u.d to ilii> vWvvx. School children should 

 be taken to the couiitrv and should have |)laiits and animals at home; 

 rabbits and gounls arc parlicularlv rccnimufnded since the former 

 are reasonably small and the latitM- urow iipwai'd 'where land is cheap.' 

 College methods ot instruction slioiild not he extended to el(>nientarv 

 schools. Of the sixte(-ii half-tones uliich illiistrat. tlu hook tuehe 

 are photographs of hovs and irirls out m 



