Excerpt: Through the neglect of nature study, the wits of the country child lose just the sharpening they most need, to say nothing of a stimulus and delight which can ill be spared by one whose mental life is apt to be monotonous. The wits of the city child may secure in other ways the sharpening so essential to success in life; yet the training afforded by a logical study of plants, and the pleasure which such a study, rightly directed, is sure to yield, are as invaluable to him as to his country cousin. Experience having proved to my keenest satisfaction that almost invariably children can be interested in stories of plants and their children, to the children of the land I offer this little book, in the earnest hope that its pages may lead at least some few of them to find in life a new joy and a deeper meaning.