Not that more is taught at an early age, but less;

that time is taken; that the wall is not run up in haste; that
the bricks are set on carefully, and the

to dry.

mortar allowed time

LORD STANLEY.

"You study Nature in the house, and when you go out-of-
doors you cannot find her."

PROF. AGASSIZ.

LONDON PRINTED BY

SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE

AND PARLIAMENT STREET

PREFACE.

THIS little book has a twofold claim upon those concerned in the work of education.

In the first place, it introduces the beginner to the study of Botany in the only way it can be properly done by the direct observation of vegetable forms. The pupil is told very little, and from the beginning, throughout, he is sent to the plant to get his knowledge of the plant. The book is designed to help him in this work, never to supersede it. Instead of memorizing the statements of others, he brings report of the living reality as he sees it; it is the things themselves that are to be examined, questioned, and understood. The true basis of a knowledge of Botany is that familiarity with the actual characters of plants, which can only be obtained by direct and habitual inspection of them. The beginner should therefore commence with the actual specimens, and learn to distinguish those external characters which lie open to observation; the knowledge of which leads naturally to that arrangement by related attributes which constitutes classification.