1 6 THREE KINGDOMS. 



chapters are composed wholly of adults ; many of old 

 and young working together. Family Chapters are 

 among our most successful branches. 



SCHOOL SOCIETIES. 



As the A. A. has become better known, it has found 

 a wide field of usefulness in connection with schools, 

 both private and public. Many teachers who have not 

 been able to find a place for natural science in the 

 ordinary curriculum, and who have yet felt that their 

 pupils should not grow up strangers to the flowers, 

 trees, birds and butterflies, have been glad to devote 

 an hour once a fortnight to the guidance of a meeting 

 devoted to these studies. In almost every school may 

 be found, at the least, six of the more intelligent boys 

 and girls who will willingly spend an evening now and 

 then in united study and discussion. The young are 

 naturally fond of collecting. Most school committees 

 will cheerfully grant the use of a room for the meet- 

 ings, and many will even provide suitable cases for the 

 specimens. In each of the several hundred schools in 

 which branches of the Agassiz Association have been 

 organized, the resultant work of personal observation 

 has had a marked tendency to counteract the evils of 

 rote-work and routine. In most cases cabinets have 

 been secured and have been filled with specimens col- 

 lected by the pupils themselves within a radius of five 

 miles of the school-house door. Visit such a society 

 as the Agassiz Chapter in Greenfield, or Fitchburg, 

 Mass. ; or that in Davenport, Iowa ; or that in Tacoma, 

 Washington Territory ; or that in Kioto, Japan, and 

 ask to be shown representations of the local fauna, 

 flora, or mineralia. The young men and women will 

 show you collections carefully prepared, accurately 

 labeled, diligently studied, highly valued, and exceed- 



