Field Flowers and the Life-History of Plants

Milkwort, eyebright, rest-harrow, lady’s-bedstraw, willow-herb, every wild flower that grows in their neighborhood, they should know quite well; should be able to describe the leaf – its shape, size, growing from the root or from the stem; the manner of flowering – a head of flowers, a single flower, a spike, etc.  And, having made the acquaintance of a wild flower, so that they can never forget it or mistake it, they should examine the spot where they find it, so that they will know for the future in what sort of ground to look for such and such a flower.  ‘We should find wild thyme here!’  ‘Oh, this is the very spot for marsh marigolds; we must come here in the spring.’  If the mother is no great botanist, she will find Miss Ann Pratt’s Wild Flowers^† very useful, with its colored plates, like enough to identify the flowers by, common English names, and pleasant facts and fancies that the children delight in.  To make collections of wild flowers for the several months, press them, and mount them neatly on squares of cartridge paper, with the English name, habitat, and date of finding of each, affords much happy occupation and, at the same time, much useful training:  better still is it to accustom children to make careful brush drawings of the flowers that interest them, of the whole plant where possible.