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 believes 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 
332 
