Art Out-of-Doors 



deadly to artistic or poetic feeling. Why/* 

 it is often said by those who should speak 

 more wisely, can anyone want to pull flow- 

 ers to pieces to learn their hideous Latin 

 names ? What is the good of it in the end, 

 and must it not destroy all sense for that 

 charm which we, in our happy ignorance, 

 enjoy so keenly? No one beheves that a 

 knowledge of astronomy destroys all pleasure 

 in the splendor of the midnight sky, or a 

 knowledge of geology all interest in the 

 grandeur and variety of the earth's surface. 

 But trees and flowers must not be studied 

 unless the student is willing to exchange the 

 pleasure of the eye for whatever barren satis- 

 faction he may find in hard names and with- 

 ered, dissected specimens. 



It is probable that one cause of this odd 

 belief is the idea that to study botany means 

 simply to learn Latin names, and that the 

 knowledge of these names is its own only end 

 and aim. If this were true, botany would 

 indeed be a dry and not very useful study, 

 although there would still be some benefit 

 in being able to speak of plants, to men of 

 any nation, exactly instead of inexactly, and 



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