1. "How can children gain a knowledge of botany'? Can not the difficulties which are said to accompany the study of this branch of science be, by some little contrivance, either removed altogether or very much diminished'? Allow me, in answer to this question, to repeat a fable which I remember to have read in some French author. 2. "A lady, observing some ants traveling across a table, dropped a lump of sugar in the midst of them; but, to her surprise, although ants are noted sugar-eaters, they all retreated in terror from the spot, nor could any of them afterward find courage to return to examine the object of their dread; on the contrary, they chose another track, and carefully avoided that which would have proved a treasure had they known its value. 3. "Struck by this occurrence, the lady placed the same piece of sugar on a part of the table near which the ants were in the habit of crossing, and, when she saw one of them approaching it, she gently placed her finger in his way, so as to obstruct his passage without alarming him. The ant paused, looked around him, and then took a new direction, not exactly toward the sugar, but near it. 4. "The lady again opposed his passage gently, and at last, by making him take a sort of zigzag1 direction, as it were, at every few steps, the ant was unconsciously2 brought to the sugar without being frightened. Once there, he examined the glittering rock attentively, touched it cautiously, broke off a morsel, and hastened away with it to the ant-hill, whence he presently returned at the head of a host of his comrades, by whom the rest of the sugar was quickly carried off. 5. "So it is with the science of Botany, and the young who have to acquire a knowledge of it. Let them be once alarmed at the aspect3 of their new pursuit, and it is almost impossible to restore their confidence; but there are few who, if led to it insensibly, will not persevere until they have made themselves masters of the subject." 6. Such are the remarks by which an eminent English botanist, Dr. Lindley, introduces one of his valuable works to the beginner in botanical studies. Like him, we would imitate the discretion of the lady in the fable; and, as we would not wish to frighten our youthful readers at the outset, we shall not build up a hedge of technical terms for them to climb over before they can enter the field to which we invite them. 7. At the beginning of this lesson we have given an engraving of an oak-tree, the pride of American forests, and a date-palm, a native of tropical climes, each surrounded by its kindred species of vegetation. The contrast of the widelydifferent forms of the oak and the palm, and of the seeds from which they sprung, shall serve as the basis on which to construct our first lesson in botany, and for pointing out the two great divisions of the vegetable world. In the following language Mrs. Howitt has very prettily described the "sprouting oak-tree:" "The oak-tree was an acorn once, that fell upon the earth; Till sun and showers nourished it, then out the branches burst." 8. The oak-tree and the date-palm, different as they are in structure and appearance, are not more unlike than the acorn and the date seed. The most careless observer must have noticed the difference between a bean or pea and a kernel of wheat or corn, as well as in the leaves and stems of the plants themselves. Acorns, beans, and peas are easily split or divided into their two lobes; while the date seeds and grains of wheat and corn seem to consist of a single mass, which is with more difficulty split or broken. 9. The more careful observer has noticed that the stem, leaves, and external covering of plants growing from twolobed or two-parted seeds differ from the corresponding parts of those springing from undivided seeds. The two-lobed seeds produce at first two seed-leaves; a stem grows up that has a woody structure, surrounded by a softer covering or bark, and the leaves are furnished with veins extending in different directions, and presenting a net-like appearance. 10. Such are found in the oak, the maple, the pines, and other fir-trees-in all the common trees of northern forestsand also in the bean, the pea, and the morning-glory. The undivided seeds, on the contrary, produce a single leaf at first; a stem grows up that has a reed-like arrangement, without bark or soft external covering, and the leaves have parallel veins. This kind of vegetable growth may be seen in a palm-stem, a ratan, a corn-stalk, and in different kinds of grain and the grasses. 9 11. Plants of the first division are what botanists call ex ogenous, or outward-growing, because they grow by additions to their outward surface, while the older and harder portions are the central parts. Those of the second division are called endogenous, or inward-growing, because they grow by internal additions, which constantly push the older and harder portions outward. Thus the outward portion of our forest trees-the sap-wood-is the softest; but the outward portion of the sugar-cane, or of a corn-stalk, is the hardest. 12. Those who have taken this first step in botany will now be able to divide plants, trees, shrubs, and flowering plants generally, into their two leading classes, from the structure1o of their stems, bark, and leaves. They will see that it requires no "mystical lore"11 to give a partial description of a tree, shrub, or herb, from the examination of a single seed. There is no difficulty in understanding this, yet it constitutes one of the most important lessons in botany. 13. Let us then enter, without hesitation, upon this interesting science, that we may gain a knowledge of PLANTS, in respect to their organization, 12 their growth, and the properties13 and characteristics14 by which they are classified and distinguished. It is a science in which Solomon delighted; for he wrote about plants, "from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall." "The vegetable world, each plant and tree, Its seed, its name, its nature, its degree, He was allowed, as Fame reports, to know; From the fair cedar on the craggy brow Of Lebanon, nodding supremely tall, To creeping moss, and hyssop on the wall." 14. Botany, moreover, is a science that will create for us a new world of life, teeming15 with ever-varying forms of beauty; it will present strange mysteries in the most common objects around us; and it will unfold16 many lessons of the "wisdom of God in creation." It will furnish us instructive companions wherever we are; and whether we wander by the road-side, in meadows and gardens, or on mountains, it will open to us the great volume of NATURE a volume written "in the only language which has gone forth to the ends of the world, unaffected by the confusion of Babel." 9 EN-DOG'-E-NOUS, inward-growing. 12 OR-GAN-I-ZA'-TION, structure; arrange- 13 PROP'-ER-TIES, peculiar qualities. 14 CHAR-AC-TER-IS'-TIES, whatever marks or denotes the qualities of a thing. 15 TEEM'-ING, abounding. 16 UN-FOLD', discover; display. LESSON III. THE ELEMENTARY PARTS OF PLANTS.-CELL LIFE. 1. ALL plants, from the gigantic cypress-trees of California to the microscopic vegetation growing as mould on bread, or mildew on articles of clothing, consist of separate and minute sacs, usually adherent1 together, and called cells. The first thing we can detect, as a seed begins to form in the living plant, is a little cell, much smaller than the point of the finest needle, and visible only by the aid of the microscope. Gradu ally this little cell grows; then it divides into two, or another little cell is added to it; soon more cells are added; and by the time the growing seed is large enough to be seen by the naked eye, it consists of a cluster or mass of these little cells adhering together. (Fig. 2.) 2. After increasing in number for some time in this way, some of these clusters grow into the form of a leaf, and others into the form of a little root. Some, however, have two seed leaves, and some have only one, thus early marking out the two great classes of vegetable growth which we have already described. Thus, in the very seed itself, the germ2 of the future plant lies hidden; even there the giant oak lies wrapped up in its little acorn cradle, a small thing then, yet destined to be not only the monarch of the woods, but the father of mighty forests yet to cover the earth. 3. Such are the wonders-the mighty results-which flow from so small a thing as a single seed. And may it not be that the Almighty formed but one acorn at the time of creation, and that in its little germ-even in its central cell—he folded up-so small that none but Omniscience3 could see it At 1 is Fig. 2. The process of cell growth is here illustrated. shown a highly magnified cell, as first seen by the microscope. The minute germ increases by the addition of other cells, until, in 6 and 7, the outlines of a leaf are visible. |