The pupils are not told
what they can see for themselves. An effort is made to keep them working
after something which they have not yet discovered. If two members
disagree on any point, on the next day, after further study, they are
requested to bring in all the proofs they can to sustain their different
conclusions. For a second lesson, the students review the first lesson,
and report on a branch of a tree of another species which they have
studied as before. Now they notice any point of difference or of
similarity. In like manner new branches are studied and new comparisons
made. For this purpose, naked branches of our species of elms, maples,
ashes, oaks, basswood, beech, poplars, willows, walnut, butternut,
hawthorns, cherries, and in fact any of our native or exotic trees or
shrubs are suitable. A comparison of the branches of any of the evergreens
is interesting and profitable. Discoveries, very unexpected, are almost
sure to reward a patient study of these objects. The teacher must not
think time is wasted. No real progress can be made, till the pupils begin
to learn to see; and to learn to see they must keep trying to form the
habit from the very first; and to form the habit they should make the
study of specimens the main feature in the course of training."
[Footnote 1: The New Botany. By W.J. Beal. Philadelphia, C.H. Marot, 814
Chestnut St., 1882. Page 5.]
HORSECHESTNUT (_AEsculus Hippocastanum_).
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