8 
PREFACE. 
A. None whatever; less than he would have had in dealing 
with almost any other subject. 
Q. Do you know in what way he taught it ? did he illus¬ 
trate it ? 
A. Invariably; he made it practical. He made it an ob¬ 
jective study. The children were taught to know the plants, 
and to pull them to pieces; to give their proper names to the 
parts; to indicate the relations of the parts to one another; 
and to find out the relation of one plant to another by the 
knowledge thus obtained. 
Q. They were children, you say, generally from eight to 
twelve? 
A. Yes, and up to fourteen. 
Q. And they learned it readily? 
A. Readily and voluntarily, entirely. 
Q. And were interested it ? 
A . Extremely interested in it. They were exceedingly fond 
of it. 
Q. Do you happen to know whether Prof. Henslow thought 
that the study of Botany developed the faculties of the mind 
—that it taught these children to think? and do you know 
whether he perceived any improvement in their mental facul¬ 
ties from that ? 
A. Yes; he used to think it was the most important agent 
that could be employed for cultivating their faculties of obser¬ 
vation, and for strengthening their reasoning powers. 
Q. He really thought that he had arrived at a practical re¬ 
sult ? 
A . Undoubtedly; and so did every one who visited the 
school or the parish. 
Q. They were children of quite the lower class? 
A. The laboring agricultural class. 
Q. And in other branches receiving the most elementary 
instruction ? 
A. Yes. 
Q. And Prof. Henslow thought that their minds were more 
developed; that they were become more reasoning beings, from 
having this study superadded to the others ? 
