Bulletin - United States National Museum - Smithsonian Institution

FLORA OF WASHINGTON AND VICINITY. 237
of, render careful work and systematic arrangement of the highest
vakie; and in the long run the more methodical the procedure the more
rapid the progress. Many of the detailed explanations above given
may seem trivial and unnecessary, but they are the result of experience,
acquired through unnumbered mistakes and erroneous impressions which
would never have been made or entertained had there existed any sys-
tematic treatise on the art (for such I maintain that it is) of practical
botany.
In conclusion, I cannot refrain from speaking a word in defense of the
herbarium as an instrument of scientific culture. It is a collection of
natural objects, scientifically classified and ever present for inspection.
No question is so often asked the botanist by the unappreciative public
as "What are you going to do with the plants?" The idea seems to
be that unless you can extract some essence or elixir from them,
either as a medicine, a food, or a perfume, they can be of no pos-
sible use. The most satisfactory answer I ever heard given to this
query was by an amateur lady botanist, who with genuine female intu-
ition replied, "Just what you do with your books; a herbarium is a
library to be consulted, studied, and read." This is it, precisely. It is
a library filled with volumes written by Nature, and which those who
have learned the language of Nature can read and enjoy with a satis-
faction as much keener than anything that man-made books can give
as it is nearer to the source of all truth.