10 
PREFACE. 
studying the plants of the neighborhood ; and the ex¬ 
periment was regarded by those who witnessed it as 
so successful, that a book embodying the course of 
study was thought desirable. 
After a year’s trial with this method of study, in 
many schools of all grades and by private students, it 
has been approved with remarkable unanimity and 
earnestness. We have, therefore, now added several 
chapters concerning the seed, germination, buds, the 
aspect of woody plants, etc. The descriptions re¬ 
quired by these objects will be more full and general, 
but the plan of describing only the results of actual 
observations is still adhered to. Questions are asked, 
but no answers are given; these are to be found by 
direct inspection of the objects. Some simple experi¬ 
ments for children are introduced, and their attention 
is directed to the changes which take place in the dif¬ 
ferent parts of the plants. 
Only those observations have been selected which 
can be made with the naked eye. But in “ The 
Second Book of Botany ” the plan of schedule-study 
is carried out, and provision made for more close and 
extended observations requiring the help of magnify¬ 
ing-glasses. 
Attempts have been made to teach classes by the 
schedule method of this work, giving the children 
only blackboard-lessons for guidance instead of the 
